OKC Thunder – Celtics preview: Rivalry built on dramatic finishes

Key matchup:

Since Marcus Smart spoke in a post-game interview about Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown needing to pass more and shoulder that responsibility to grow the Celts have played better, particularly defensively.

Some took the stance Smart should’ve kept that detail inside the locker room but who’s to say he hadn’t tried before. That trio is in their fifth season together so this presumably was a topic of conversation prior.

Specifically, Brown said:

‘They Don’t Want To Pass The Ball’ … “Every team is programmed and studied to stop Jayson and Jaylen. I think everybody’s scouting report is to make those guys pass the ball. They don’t want to pass the ball.”

If you listen to the tape, it doesn’t seem like Smart is saying it with any vitriol because he also says a bunch of positives and calls them the team’s stars. Hey, with great power comes great responsibility and perhaps Smart was simply answering a question knowing this might put a spotlight on two guys who weren’t impacting their teammates in a positive manner.

His comments followed a loss to the Bulls rendering the Celts 2-5 on the season. Since then Boston is 5-3 and their defense has hit new heights. Prior to his comments, Boston ranked 20th defensively – since then they’ve held the second-best defense in the league.

As for the two stars, Brown only appeared in two more games before the hamstring injury with him averaging 2.5 assists per game pre-comments, and nothing changed in the two games after (exactly 2.5 assists).

Ironically, Tatum was averaging 3.7 assists per game pre-comments and is averaging 3.4 assists per game since.

With Brown expected to still be out the onus will fall on keeping Tatum in check both in terms of orchestrating the play and scoring. The latter hasn’t been as much of a battle this season as the young star has struggled to start the season.

His scoring is down from 26.4 points to 24.2 points but the issue is his efficiency and the other areas of his game. His assists and steals are down while his turnovers and personal fouls are up.

Tatum has regressed in every area of the court.

In 2020-21 he took 20.6 field goal attempts per game shooting 45.9 percent, 38.6 from the perimeter, 50.2 percent from 2-point range, and 86.8 percent from the line.

This season he’s taking 22.2 field goal attempts shooting 39.6 percent from the field, 32.5 percent from the perimeter, 44.0 percent from 2-point range, and 77.3 percent from the stripe.

A season ago there was banter about the 23-year-old potentially growing into an MVP candidate but his struggles through the early season seem to point to something being off.

The intriguing part of the matchup will be who Ime Udoka tasks with guarding Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and if Dort stays hot who matches up with him.

If Schroder starts the height of both Giddey and SGA will cause him issues. Smart can be tasked with SGA but again if Lu stays hot then who handles him?

Ideally, whoever Tatum is covering is rolling on offense to keep him invested with spending energy on the defensive end.