Jayson Tatum torched the Phoenix Suns in the first half on Thursday night. He poured in 23 points on 9-of-11 shooting from the field and 4-of-6 shooting from deep. Tatum carved out the defense with strong drives and outdueled Kevin Durant with tough threes.
By the time the third quarter came around, the Suns were honed in on the Celtics star. When Jrue Holiday screened for him, leaving Jusuf Nurkic to guard him on the perimeter, Phoenix doubled several feet behind the three-point line.
As soon as Durant helped, Tatum made the clear pass to Holiday, who swung it to Derrick White on the wing for an open three.
To the naked eye, Tatum’s play was straightforward—an easy pass that every star should be able to make. And while that’s absolutely true, it’s also a testament to his progression throughout his career.
Two years (and one day) prior to Thursday’s game against the Suns, Tatum was missing some of these seemingly obvious plays. Facing a double team, Tatum jumped in the air and tried to make a play without being grounded.
With the roster Boston has built, there is more pressure than ever on Tatum and Brown to be more than scorers. They need to be offensive hubs.
“I thought you saw tonight, both of them, they had a great balance of being aggressive, and also baiting the double teams to get easier shots for other people,” said head coach Joe Mazzulla. “And it’s a credit to them for their growth.”
Simple plays are only simple because of the work and studying Boston’s stars have done for years. Once score-first wings, Tatum and Brown have grown into the type of do-everything stars that this Celtics team needs them to be.
Adding guys like Derrick White, Kristaps Porzingis, and Holiday takes the pressure off of Boston’s dynamic duo, but the uber-talented roster still only goes as far as their top two will take them.
Even as Brown exploded for 37 points on Thursday, another rendition of his post-All-Star break surge, he kept his head on a swivel.
Nurkic spends most of his time in drop coverage. The Celtics know this. So, when Brown got Devin Booker to bite on his pump fake, Horford was wide-open at the top of the key.
“Being able to recognize know how teams are guarding us, where the coverages are at, and then playing from there,” Brown said. “I think that night-to-night, being able to add a focus, being able to add the attention to detail, to shift and be humble enough to allow whatever needs to happen, to happen.
“And I think that’s where the growth has been, and I think that’s where it [has] got to continue. As teams try to guard us [in] different ways, just expose whatever it is that they’re giving up, and live with those results.”
Two years (and one day) ago, Brown wasn’t making this read. Instead, he was rushing the play, jumping before passing, and turning the ball over.
Easy plays set the baseline for success. If Tatum and Brown are making those consistently, the complicated decisions are infrequent and often entirely unnecessary.
And patience is the key.
Early in the second quarter, Brown finished a tough and-one over Nurkic. But it was the process that led to it that exemplifies his growth.
Xavier Tillman and Brown ran a dribble hand-off. As Tillman dished the ball to Brown, he rolled to the rim, and Brown got Royce O’Neale on his back. He waited in the lane, keeping O’Neale behind him as Tillman screened Nurkic in the paint. By the time Brown was ready to leap and Tillman released his screen, Nurkic was late, and Brown got an and-one.
Past versions of Brown may have gone too early. He could have settled for a mid-range jumper (that was there for him). He may have failed to get to his spot in time and allowed O’Neale to jump him. But patience prevailed.
“Just their patience,” Mazzulla said. “The balance of knowing when to go early in the shot clock. The balance of wanting to get to their spacing. The understanding of matchup-recognition [and] coverage-recognition, all those things go into it. And their patience and their pace and their balance. And”
With Tillman, Luke Kornet, and Al Horford in the lineup (and Porzingis, when healthy), the Celtics have big men who excel at being in the right spots. At that point, it’s just up to Tatum and Brown to execute. Read the defense, react accordingly, and make the play.
“It’s been great,” Tatum said. “I think, like you said, just the progression over the years of getting better [in general] and getting better [at] reading the game. Understanding how to play off each other as well as our teammates and picking our spots. Just trying to make the game easier for ourselves and everybody else.”
Easy plays are only easy because they were once hard. Tatum and Brown had to learn how to be at the nucleus of an offense, and now that the Celtics need them to deliver, they’re doing just that.
