Jayson Tatum is trying to play the hero.
This is the hook of a new national TV ad spot that debuted this week promoting the upcoming blockbuster ‘Superman’ movie in which Tatum, playing himself in the commercial, decides to answer the call. As the story goes, Superman is taking the day off and the world is in peril searching for who’s going to sub in and replace The Man of Steel. The big payoff in the ad shows a suited Tatum going full Clark Kent, peeling back his button down shirt and revealing a Superman jersey underneath. In this fictional tale, Tatum steps up and saves the day.
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These sorts of commercials take months of planning. An army of staff members behind big brands, high-powered studios and in-demand athletes have to weave a 30-second fairytale for the movie-going masses and strategically time it during the NBA playoffs. There was no way to know how poorly this ad would land amid Tatum’s real-life profession as the struggling star of the Boston Celtics, down 0-2 in the East semifinals thanks, in part, to Tatum’s inability to step up.
Tatum wants you to believe he is the hero. But in reality, his hero-ball tendencies are backfiring on the national stage in a big way right now. Tatum and the Celtics have blown back-to-back 20-point leads at home while Tatum has melted down in crunchtime, most acutely in Game 2’s game-ending turnover.
Unfortunately, Tatum’s hero-ball obsession isn’t anything new. Throughout his career, Tatum hasn’t been shy about how he has idolized Kobe Bryant, the godfather of hero ball, who was known for taking on double- and triple-teams in clutch moments and hitting the impossible shot. For Bryant, it was a reputation — if not mythology — that was built more on volume than efficiency. Too often, Tatum has tried to emulate that superhero quality, and has come up empty.
In that way, though, Tatum’s Bryant hero-ball act is painfully accurate. And the 27-year-old needs to ditch the Superman impression before he washes the Celtics out of the playoffs.
Tatum paid tribute to Kobe during Game 7 of the 2022 Eastern Conference finals. (Photo by Matthew J. Lee/The Boston Globe via Getty Images)
(Boston Globe via Getty Images)
No doubt Tatum is certified. He is an NBA champion, a six-time All-Star and on the verge of becoming a five-time All-NBA member. Though Jaylen Brown won last year’s Finals MVP, Tatum did earn the 2021-22 Eastern Conference Finals MVP award. When he held that trophy after his terrific performance in a Game 7 win over the Miami Heat in 2022, a purple sweatband gripped his left arm with the number ‘24’ inscribed in gold. He wore the accessory throughout the game as a tribute, he said, to the late Bryant.
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“Game Seven,” Tatum said at the postgame ceremony at center court. “Everybody knows how much he means to me. My idol. My favorite player. Just to have something to show him in the biggest game of my career so far. And it worked out.”
It worked then, but not lately.
In this series so far, Tatum has been a mess in the clutch, perhaps hampered by a sore wrist that sidelined him for a game in the first round. Beyond the game-ending turnover on Wednesday night, Tatum is 1-for-7 on field-goal attempts in clutch situations — the official designation when the game is within five points in the final five minutes. The one made basket in that tally came in the open court when he slalomed past the Knicks’ defense and soared for a thunderous dunk. Everything else has been clanked jumpers. In the Game 1 collapse, Tatum missed all five of his clutch shots, all jumpers with an average shot distance of 23.4 feet away from the basket.
When Game 2 spiraled out of control for the Celtics, with the team having missed 10 straight field-goal attempts, Tatum decided, of all things, to put his head down and go iso on All-Defensive veteran OG Anunoby. The 6-foot-8 wing got downhill, put his left shoulder into Anunoby’s chest on the right block and came to a halt with his back to the basket.
Everyone in the gym knew what was coming next. Tatum shook right and then spun around for a fadeaway 11-footer on the baseline, something straight out of the Kobe playbook. Anunoby read it the whole way and blanketed the shot with his outstretched hand. It rimmed out. Unlike the game-ending play, at least he got the shot off.
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The problem with hero ball is that it’s predictable and therefore easily defended. But that’s part of the allure. The lower the odds, the greater the glory if the shot goes in. Tatum seemed to shed that selfish strategy in the regular season when he averaged a career-high 7.1 assists per 36 minutes of clutch time. In the postseason, though, it has plummeted to 1.9. In 19 minutes of close-and-late action, he has just one assist along with 2-of-10 shooting in those high-pressure moments.
Some might chalk it up to a small sample size, but this is a continuation of a larger trend. Despite winning the title last season, Tatum has an ineffective track record in crunchtime that has only persisted. Over the last four postseasons, including the terrific 2022 East finals run, Tatum is now shooting 35.8 percent from the floor in playoff clutch situations and a ghastly 6-of-22 (27.3 percent) from beyond the arc, according to Stathead.com tracking.
Here’s how that stacks up among his star peers. Tatum’s effective field goal percentage, which is weighted for the added value of 3-pointers, sits at 41.5 percent in these close-and-late circumstances in the playoffs which is the lowest among 12 players with at least 30 clutch shot attempts over that span.
Want to expand the sample size to include the regular season? Unfortunately for Celtics fans, it tells the same story. Tatum’s effective field goal percentage remains at 41.1 percent in the larger subset. Among high-volume scorers with at least 250 clutch shot attempts since 2021-22, Tatum’s effective field goal percentage ranks 19th out of 20 players. Only Fred VanVleet (40.9 percent) has been worse.
Anyone with two eyes watching this series can see that the 3-point column is the most troubling. Get a mismatch on Karl-Anthony Towns? Pull-up 3-ball. Have the 6-2 Brunson on ice skates at the top of the key? Step-back beyond the arc. Mitchell Robinson dancing 25 feet away from the rim? Don’t attack, just let it fly. The Celtic is shooting 20.8 percent on clutch 3-pointers (25 of 120) over the last four seasons, an ineptitude that is only outdone in this star group by Jimmy Butler and his 20.7 percent.
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The big difference? Tatum has shot 120 3-pointers while Butler has taken only 58. One knows he shouldn’t be taking so many at that conversion rate.
Nonetheless, Tatum has continued to shoot with impunity. It may be a byproduct of Joe Mazzulla’s 3-point-heavy system that pushes the math beyond anything we’ve seen in the NBA. In Game 1, the Celtics set postseason records with both 60 3-point attempts and 45 missed 3-pointers. In Game 2, the Celtics dialed it back a bit, making just 10-of-40 attempts. Tatum missed two 3-pointers in the fourth quarter, one an airball and the other an acceptable corner 3 with no one within two zip codes. He missed it anyway.
We heard a lot about Tatum’s revamped jump shot ahead of the season. After a postseason struggle from beyond the arc and a personally disappointing Olympics run, Tatum told reporters that he worked in the offseason with his trainer Drew Hanlen on tightening his 3-point shot mechanics. Hanlen said he focused on “retooling” Tatum’s jumper and tried to find consistency on his balance, ball path and release point especially on contested shots. After a hot season debut in which he made 8 of 11 from distance, Tatum registered a career-low 3-point field goal percentage (34.3). In the postseason, it has shriveled to 32.1 percent.
Tatum has to find a way to get into the lane more and finish with strength. In this series, he has shot 5 of 7 in the restricted area, making 71.4 percent of his shots near the rim. Good things happen when he pursues the cup. But outside that zone, Tatum in this series is shooting 7 of 35, including 1 of 8 in the midrange and 5 of 20 from beyond the arc. Too often, he’s settling for those looks rather than pressuring a Knicks defense that lacks elite rim protection. In clutch moments, his inefficient tendencies fester beyond reproach.
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Tatum isn’t the only player who deserves scrutiny for the team going down 0-2 in the series to the rival Knicks. Mazzulla and the defense haven’t figured out how to slow down Brunson in the biggest moments. The team-wide turnovers and overall shot selection are problems. Kristaps Porziņģis has barely played due to an illness.
But the heartbreaking collapses in Boston have exposed Tatum’s long-standing struggles in crunchtime. Despite the national ad campaign running in the background, Tatum doesn’t have to play hero and try to do it all by himself. The sooner he realizes that, the better the Celtics’ chances of surviving this series.
This news was originally published on this post .
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