Former Duke basketball star Jayson Tatum did not have the ball in his hands as the Boston Celtics attempted a late comeback bid against the Miami Heat.
Unless you have an extremely hot hand on your team in the midst of a comeback, you would typically want the ball to be in the hands of your best player coming down the stretch, but the Celtics opted against that on Tuesday night.
Jayson Tatum only took three shots in the final quarter of the Celtics’ 112-106 loss to the Miami Heat, making one, as Boston was able to cut a double-digit deficit for a majority of the game to just four in the fourth.
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The former Blue Devil still led the way for the C’s, ending his night with 23 points, seven rebounds, one assist, one steal, and one block on 6-of-11 shooting from the floor, 2-of-5 from 3-point range, and a perfect 9-for-9 from the free throw line.
Instead of Tatum, who was coming off of a 34-point performance on Sunday against the Portland Trail Blazers, the Celtics rode on the non-existent shot of Jaylen Brown, who was 9-of-23 from the field.
The loss should not come back and haunt the Celtics in the future as the team still holds a one and a half game lead over the Miami Heat for the No. 3 seed in the Eastern Conference, and although home-court advantage does not mean anything this season, Boston would still prefer not to see the Milwaukee Bucks until the Eastern Conference Finals.
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Milwaukee has all but clinched the No. 1 seed in the East as the Toronto Raptors hold the No. 2 seed, trailing the Bucks by five games but leading the Celtics by four and a half games.
Nonetheless, Jayson Tatum and the Boston Celtics will be back on the court on Wednesday night against the hot shooting Brooklyn Nets, who pulled off one of the biggest upsets in NBA history yesterday over the Bucks, winning 119-116 as nearly 20-point underdogs.
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Boston and Brooklyn will tipoff at 9:00pm EST on ESPN.