Kendrick Perkins Doesn't See 'That Dawg' in Jayson Tatum

Tatum is no Paul Pierce right now.

Jayson Tatum throws the ball away at the end of the Celtics loss to the Knicks. / David Butler II-Imagn Images

The Boston Celtics blew a 20-point lead to the New York Knicks for the second straight game and now trail their Eastern Conference semifinal series 0-2. While he's not the only Celtics player struggling right now, Jayson Tatum may be the most high-profile.

Tatum is shooting 28.6% from the field and has made just 5-of-20 three-point attempts. Even worse than the numbers, Kendrick Perkins doesn't think he's got that dog in him, and basketball analysis doesn't get much more damning than that in 2025.

On Get Up this morning, Perkins compared Tatum's demeanor right now to Paul Pierce's when Perkins was his teammate in Boston. Perkins said that Pierce took pride in individual matchups and protecting home court. Tatum, not so much.

"At some point, Jayson Tatum's gotta say, 'I'm the best player on the floor. I cannot be guarded.' ... He's one of the most elite scorers in the game today, and I just don't see that tenacity. I don't see that dog in him."

—@KendrickPerkins after the Celtics' Game 2 loss to the… pic.twitter.com/9cuPVNw3aV

— Get Up (@GetUpESPN) May 8, 2025

"I'm not seeing that from Jayson Tatum right now," Perkins explained. "And it's all about the dawg right? Being the dawg. Being able to get to the free throw line. And I get it. He shot only five three-point shots last night and you gotta give a lot of credit to OG Anunoby. You've gotta give a lot of credit to Mikal Bridges. Hell, Jalen Brunson that time we see him sliding those puppies and we saw at the end of the play, we saw Mitchell Robinson get down in the defensive stance but at some point Jayson Tatum's gotta say, 'I'm the best player on the floor. I cannot be guarded. He's one of the most elite scorers in the game today, and I just don't see that tenacity. I don't see that dawg in him. And this I thought was going to be his moment after being disrespected all summer long that he was going to be ready to protect not only his championship, but definitely his home court and his crib."

It's hard to argue. Especially since Pierce still takes Celtics playoff games so seriously he's walking 15 miles barefoot to work today in his bathrobe following the loss. Some might say Pierce actually has too much dawg in him for his own good.

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