Tatum Looks GREAT & Jaylen Brown's BAD Ejection

Let's talk about the return of Jayson Tatum.

Three games into uh Tatum's return to the Celtics lineup coming off that Achilles injury , and you really can't ask for too much more from Tatum.

Averaging right around 20 points per game, shooting 39% from the floor, that's not great.

29% from 3, that's not great, but you expected some rust to be on Tatum coming back after a nearly 10-month layoff.

You did not expect him, at least I didn't expect him.

To be this productive on the offensive floor now, he sat out the game Thursday night against Oklahoma City.

Good move by Boston.

Don't play him against Lou Dort in a situation like this.

You don't wanna risk some kind of further injury to Tatum, recurrence of an injury against a physical player like like injury, something like that.

You don't wanna risk that.

Um, but I, I've been really impressed with what I've seen from Tatum.

Now, I've had coaches that have been watching Tatum send me some clips where it's pretty clear that Tatum is not.

Overly confident pushing off that leg just yet.

Like he's not, he, he's, he's balancing it out, uh, somewhat.

He's, he's making adjustments, uh, for a player coming off this type of injury, but that was expected to, to be at a point.

We're averaging nearly 20 points per game in your 1st 3 games back.

You know the shooting percentages are going to improve.

You know the, the, when the minutes go up, the, the production is going to grow.

Uh, I thought, I think he's been very good since coming back.

What have you seen from Tatum?

Yeah, I thought he's been unbelievable as well .

Um, I think one thing that occurred even from the first couple of games, I know he's been cautious on like pushing off on that leg, but some of his movement kind of looked like that of old form.

I remember, uh, him coming off with the Mavericks in and out, and he missed the dunk, but it was like, hey, your reaction time, you know, how you got to the rim and, and your handle, like your awareness is still pretty much there.

The corner three that he hit, shot fake, sidestep, I, I think some of that stuff looked like Looked like days of old , but of course, when you look at his shooting numbers, he's missed a few chippies over the past few games that, that has affected his numbers, but I thought he looked really good.

I thought, uh, you know, he could still be used in a high impact way still with him trying to figure his ways out from how I, I've seen him score these past 3 games.

He looks good to me.

He's hitting shots, but of course, it's going to take time to get back in it.

But we were talking 15 points.

Like, you know what I mean?

And we're talking maybe 16, an average like a 20, and then also like, man, he could be averaging 24, 25, for 3 or 4 shots a game look good, you know.

So where do you slot Boston right now?

Because, look, they go 1 and 2 on this road trip, but they were ultra competitive against San Antonio, might have won that game had Jalen Brown not gotten ejected in the 2nd quarter, we can get into that.

Um, and then their life and death with Oklahoma City, with Tatum out, with Derrick White out.

These are the two best teams in the Western Conference.

The Celtics played them at less than 100% and still could have won.

Both of those games.

They did win the game in Cleveland, which is considered one of their peers in the Eastern Conference.

Uh, you know, those oddsmakers, and I talked about this with Rachel earlier in the week, the oddsmakers have made the Celtics, given them the second-best odds to win an NBA championship.

The best odds to win the.

Eastern Conference.

I think a lot of people looked at that and said, well, that's a lot of faith you're showing in a guy coming back from an injury.

But the game against Cleveland, the way they played against San Antonio, the way they played against Oklahoma City, I don't know how you can look at this, what, four-game stretch, 5-game stretch, and say, that's not the best team in the Eastern Conference.

That's not the best team that besides Oklahoma City should have the best odds to win a championship.

I, I think the oddsmakers here, they've got it right.

No, I definitely think so too.

I, I just, Man, just these past few games has kind of show where their potential can be and what they're able to do.

And like I said, when you watch them play the mentality, you don't see like a guy struggling or you don't see players struggling.

You see guys trying to get to a championship and get into championship form.

That's what I like most about the Boston Celtics.

I think when it comes down to that playoff time and trying to come out the east, Like I said prior , I don't, I don't think.

I don't think Detroit's ready enough, even though it comes down to physicality.

I think, I think Boston has, uh, picked up their play and their toughness around this way to be able to combat a Detroit, or even if you want to go deeper in there, combat a New York Knick.

But, uh, when you hit the, the finals, just judging from last year with the Indiana Pacers, and if you say it comes down to like an OKC situation, OKC is unbelievable, but I think that, I'm not saying played down to the level of their competition, but I think certain teams such as the Pacers who weren't even supposed to be there were able to get with them in a seven-game series.

I think if they had to match up versus Boston Celtics, a good coaching staff and everything, I like their odds just as much as if the Pacers were to occur.

And this is coming with In my mind, uh, Jayson Tatum probably 22 months in playing, and I think that's a completely different night.

Yeah, I, I'm really anxious to see what Tatum looks like a month from now, right before the season starts, because he's talked about the frustration of playing under a minute restriction, which is right around 25, 30 minutes per game.

That's exactly what the Celtics should do.

You shouldn't have a guy coming off this kind of injury and throw him back in the mix for 30, 35 minutes, but that minutes restriction is going to melt away over the next month.

Um, being back as early as he got back gives the Celtics the opportunity to ramp him up and get him postseason ready to play 30, 35 minutes every single night.

And look, I mentioned being without Tatum and White, they're without Vusovich as well.

I mean, Vusovich is out for another 3 weeks.

That's another big, they're.

They're, they're stitching this together with, you know, tape and wire and finding ways to get it done.

I mean, I, I was a little bit startled to see the Celtics' odds go from 900 to 550.

I thought that showed maybe a little bit too much faith in a player coming back from this type of injury, but he has stepped right in, fit in virtually seamlessly, and the Celtics very easily could have gone through this road trip at 3-0.

1 of the reasons they didn't go 3-0, Evan.

It is because in the San Antonio game, Jalen Brown got tossed.

Jalen Brown got tossed in the 2nd quarter, and we gotta put some of this on Jalen Brown.

I gotta say this off the top.

Jalen Brown, who has got the memory of an elephant, right?

Like Jalen Brown remembers whatever, whatever slight you gave Jalen Brown like 8 years ago, he remembers it to this day.

It's still up in his head.

I don't blame Jalen because Jalen is the guy.

Whose selection was booed on draft night.

Like his selection back in 2016, I think it was, was booed on draft night by a bunch of fans that either wanted Boston to trade the pick for Jimmy Butler or they wanted to draft Chris Dunn.

I was there.

That's what they wanted at that time.

Every year since then.

Jalen Brown's had his name in trade talks, so I understand where Jalen's coming from, but the point is Jalen remembers everything, and Jalen sure as hell remembers the game two months ago where the Celtics played against San Antonio and shot 4 free throws.

So, everything inside Jalen Brown I think was bubbling up.

So when he gets bumped a little bit by Stefan Cassel on the baseline, gets hit, gets knocked out of bounds, there's no call, he loses his mind on Tyler Ford.

Now, the, uh, first tech.

No issue.

Jalen Earn, that first tackle.

I think the players in the locker room would say the same thing.

The 2nd technical, that's where things get a little bit dicey.

That's where the question becomes, do you take into account if you're a referee, the fact that you are ejecting Jalen Brown from a nationally televised game between two of the top 4 teams in the NBA.

On top of that, it wasn't even the crew chief, Tyler Ford.

Who ejected Jalen Brown.

It was the umpire who did it from the basketball equivalent of right field.

In my opinion, that referee should not have done it.

Should not have tossed Jalen Brown from that game.

You have to understand the circumstances.

And more importantly, you're not the damn crew chief.

You're not the referee that Jalen Brown is going at in that moment.

If Tyler Ford had ejected Jalen Brown, I still would have had a problem with it, but I would have.

Understood it more because Jalen was coming at him, man.

Jalen was really hot.

He was hot coming at him, but Tyler Ford didn't do it.

Tyler Ford didn't eject him from that game.

It was the other referee from way outside tossed him out of there.

So I thought he was in the wrong there.

What did you think of that entire sequence?

I definitely thought he's very much in the wrong.

Obviously I know how frustrated he's been a couple of months ago when he was discussing not getting free throws , feeling slighted.

He always.

slighted in regards to, uh, his position in the league, of course.

I thought one thing that really threw it off that we can all relate to, like, his moment was no different than a Draymond Green moment.

And that's no diss to Draymond Green, but when we're sitting here in, in a situation, even when you go last year with, what was it?

New Orleans when Draymond Green freaked out on the New Orleans team and called them all P-words and everything, I feel like we've seen this numerous times.

But the most important thing, like you're saying, this is a national TV game.

Like, it it's about money.

It's, it's bigger than me.

Like, do you understand what I'm saying?

And like, that's my only thing where I really had a problem with it's like you guys, like Jason said, you guys have a problem with superstars never playing national TV games and then you throw them out the game.

And at this level, I believe Jalen was ultra like ultra wrong, but I believe he deserved a level of leeway and to keep hooping and to keep entertaining us.

And, uh, I think, uh, you know, the refs lost the narrative that night.

You know, this is uh, an entertainment league.

Yeah, you, you can't throw.

The best player on the Boston Celtics who is cooking at that 0.8 points through 1.5 quarters.

You can't throw him out of the game.

You can't do it.

Uh , and I don't think the NBA, like when I've talked to the NBA about it, you know, privately, like they have made the same point that I just made here.

Like it can't be the umpire throw the guy out of the game.

It's gotta be the crew chief making a decision of that magnitude.

That was an NBC televised game.

That was close going into halftime.

The Celtics led by 2 points.

They wound up losing by what, 8 or 9.

You can't make that decision if you're the referee.

So, like, there's some blame to go around.

Jalen was hot.

He did like , even that play like.

It was probably a foul, but it wasn't an egregious foul, right?

Like it was a little bit of a, a little bit of a hip thing from my eyes anyway.

Yeah, he had been pissed off.

You could tell he had been pissed off.

I think one thing that encouraged the Spurs and just even the players, it's like, shit, bro, we, we're trying to see them in a few months.

Like we need to see what works.

What doesn't work?

I think it was also like a, a blessing in disguise and being like, hey, they don't know how to game plan for us.

They went full throttle.

Big Dog had 41, other dudes did other stuff, but it's like they, they don't really know how to game plan for us yet, especially with JT back.

So I, I also thought that was a detriment as well.