2022 NBA Finals: Ime Udoka Talks Jayson Tatum's Recent Struggles Ahead Of Game 6
Following their Game 5 loss in San Francisco, the Boston Celtics now trail the Golden State Warriors 3-2 in the 2022 NBA Finals, just one loss away from seeing their season come to an end.
While they did not play badly in Game 5, holding Golden State to just 104 total points and Stephen Curry to just 16 points on 0-9 shooting from deep after he exploded for 43 points in Game 4, the Celtics’ offense scored just 94 points, marking the third time this series that they have failed to eclipse 100 points in a game.
In fact, in all three of these games they have failed to do so, the Celtics have lost and this is not a coincidence!
The Celtics’ defense is good enough to come back and win this Finals series, but their offense has really been struggling lately. Jaylen Brown and Marcus Smart have pulled their weight, for the most part, but we have yet to see a signature, First Team All-NBA type of performance from Jayson Tatum.
Averaging 23.2 points, 7.5 rebounds, 7.0 assists and shooting 45.1% from three-point range, Tatum is not having a “bad” series per se, but he is shooting just 36.7% from the floor in the series and is averaging 3.6 turnovers per game.
Celtics head coach Ime Udoka talked to the media following the team’s practice session on Wednesday afternoon and offered confidence in his star’s ability to impact Game 6 and the rest of this series.
“I would say we evaluate him on not only scoring but how he's playing in general,” Udoka said. “From a scoring standpoint at times this whole series, not only fourth quarter, he's missed some things that he usually makes. But we do want him to be aggressive and find that balance, as he's done all year...
"We want him to be aggressive and make the right read, which he's done all year against all the coverages that he's seen.”
In the most recent game of this series, Tatum scored a team-high 27 points on 10-20 shooting, but he finished with 4 total turnovers and was -13 over the course of the 44 minutes he played.
Fixing their mistakes offensively will be key for the Celtics heading into Game 6 on Thursday night and a large part of what has transpired may be because of their mentality.
Boston has found themselves talking to the referees a lot in this series and Udoka also addressed this on Wednesday, stating that the team needs to focus on themselves rather than the officials.
“I think in general just too many conversations being had at times. Feels like after foul calls or dead balls, free throws, timeouts, there's somebody talking to a ref,” Udoka said. “So something we got to spend our energy on the game, and everything else going in between, other than the referees.”
Game 6 of the 2022 NBA Finals between the Golden State Warriors and Boston Celtics will be played on Thursday, June 16 at 9:00 p.m. ET. on ABC. The Celtics are currently 4-point favorites and the over/under is set at 210 for the game according to FanDuel.com.
Related stories on 2022 NBA Finals:
- 3 Things We Learned From Celtics-Warriors NBA Finals Game 5 On Monday: The Golden State Warriors defeated the Boston Celtics 104-94 in Game 5 of the 2022 NBA Finals on Monday to take a 3-2 series lead heading to Boston for Game 6 on Thursday. CLICK HERE.
- 2022 NBA Finals: Why The Celtics Should Be Very Concerned After Game 5 Loss: Losing 104-94 on Monday night in Game 5 of the 2022 NBA Finals, the Boston Celtics now trail the Golden State Warriors 3-2 in this series, casting a ton of doubt on their ability to come back and win the title. CLICK HERE.
- 2022 NBA Finals: Marcus Smart Talks With Media Ahead Of Game 6: The Boston Celtics will host the Golden State Warriors in Game 6 of the 2022 NBA Finals on Thursday night. Marcus Smart spoke with the media ahead of this critical game on Wednesday afternoon. CLICK HERE.
