The Boston Celtics have a 2-0 lead in the 2024 NBA Finals, but there is some reason for concern right now.
For one, center Kristaps Porzingis is once again hurt, this time with a rare leg injury, and his status for Game 3 is up in the air.
At the same time, Jayson Tatum, their best player, is struggling offensively.
He’s averaging just 17.0 points a game on 31.6 percent shooting in the Finals so far, and he did publicly admit he needs to be more efficient while also saying he needs to find other ways to help his team win, per NBC Sports Boston.
“I do need to shoot the ball better. I wouldn’t disagree with anybody on that… I’m still trying to find ways to impact the game in other areas.”
– Jayson Tatum (averaging 17 points, 8.5 assists, 10 rebounds in first two games) addresses fixation on his scoring ahead of Game 3 pic.twitter.com/5fvWkoEVTi
— Celtics on NBC Sports Boston (@NBCSCeltics) June 11, 2024
Right now, it appears Boston is clearly a better team than the Dallas Mavericks, their opponent in the championship series, but there is plenty of basketball left to be played, and things could change quickly.
Dallas can quickly make this a competitive series if Tatum continues to miss on a consistent basis.
The problem is that Tatum is starting to build a history of playing poorly on the biggest stage.
When his Celtics lost the championship to the Golden State Warriors two years ago, he shot just 36.7 percent in that series and was over 43 percent in just one of the six games played.
In Game 7 of the 2023 Eastern Conference Finals against the Miami Heat, with seemingly everything going Boston’s way, Tatum went out meekly with 14 points on 5-of-13 shooting in a blowout loss at home.
This is his opportunity to change that budding narrative, but another Celtics loss in the Finals will likely have people questioning whether Tatum has that dog in him.
