Jayson Tatum is the person of the second, and rightfully so. It’s not on daily basis that you simply sink the game-winning bucket on the Opening Evening of the playoffs, in opposition to a group fielding two elite superstars. That’s what Tatum does although — he thrives within the large moments, and on Sunday evening, he added one other signature second that will probably be used to explain his budding legacy.
We’re all going to keep in mind that shot. How Tatum become a ballerina with the sweetest of pirouettes, and most significantly, we are going to always remember the irony of Kyrie Irving being the one to get cooked on the ultimate possession.
However to solely bear in mind the ultimate shot is to discredit all of the work Tatum had carried out all through the sport as a result of the Brooklyn Nets certain didn’t make life simple for him. Main choices get the brunt of a group’s defensive plan, this a lot we all know, however the Brooklyn Nets had been unrelenting in how they guarded Boston’s crown jewel and ensured their protection remained fluid to attempt to restrict Tatum’s influence on the sport — not that it did them a lot good.
Whereas on the ground, the St Louis native confronted 9 totally different defenders, with Kevin Durant and Nicolas Claxton being the first choices Brooklyn despatched his approach. Tatum acquired the most effective of each of these battles, as he flitted between high-level playmaker and elite scorer, punishing the protection in any approach he probably may. In fact, the Nets didn’t keep on with man-to-man protection, they ensured that doubles, switches, hedges, and all of that good things had been despatched Tatum’s approach as constantly as potential. Let’s check out how Tatum navigated the Nets’ defensive sport plan in Recreation 1.
Coping with measurement
For the entire Nets’ defensive shortcomings, they do boast some appreciable measurement within the frontcourt, they usually made certain to point out Tatum quite a lot of it every time he acquired on the ball. As you’d count on, Brooklyn tasked the 6’10’’ Kevin Durant with a lot of the on-ball duties to start the sport, with the group counting on assist protection to stress Tatum on drives or pick-and-rolls.
Within the above play, you may see Durant guarding the Celtics All-Star in an off-ball capability earlier than getting caught up on a display. Seth Curry does a great job of stunting in the direction of Tatum on the perimeter, slowing him down simply sufficient for Durant to get again within the play and choose his man again up. Watch how Curry then navigates the ground to attempt to get his physique between the rim and Tatum on the drive, with Durant contesting within the rearview.
It was that sort of evening for Tatum, the place our bodies had been flying at him from all angles, and large wingspans had been swiping at him from behind. The above play led to a block, so it’s secure to say that Brooklyn’s preliminary sport plan was paying dividends.
As the sport wore on, the Duke product grew to become proof against the extra stress in man-to-man conditions, and we slowly noticed Tatum begin to warmth up.
Tatum slaloms via 4 totally different defenders on this possession, and as soon as once more did a superb job of beating Durant off the dribble following a pick-and-roll motion, maintaining the celebrity on his hip on his approach in the direction of the basket. NBA Stat tracking data has Durant listed as guarding Tatum for 9:12 minutes and a complete of 47.8 partial possessions, in that point, Tatum scored 9 factors whereas the Celtics drained 52 as a group.
The issue with throwing measurement and size at Tatum in straight man-to-man protection, even when you will have guys digging and stunting at him, is that his deal with is way too developed for him to not create pockets of area. Tatum is a scorer of the very best type and can assault you in any approach he can and as usually as he can. It wasn’t a shock that Brooklyn did not restrict his possibilities by merely throwing measurement his approach.
Dimension + Switching
When one lengthy physique isn’t sufficient to cease somebody, ship two lengthy our bodies. That ought to work, proper?
As the sport wore on, the Nets started switching extra of the Celtics’ perimeter pick-and-roll actions, swapping out Durant for Claxton, making certain that Tatum wasn’t getting measurement mismatches for him to bully onto the submit.
Claxton is without doubt one of the extra athletically gifted gamers within the NBA and is actually essentially the most gifted throughout the Brooklyn rotation. So, the prepare of thought was clear: swap Durant for Claxton, have Durant stunt or rotate as a helper, and permit Claxton to stress the rock every time Tatum goes to shoot. Logically, this plan was sound. In apply, it gave Tatum a wider scope to generate scoring alternatives.
In fact, Claxton wasn’t all the time on the ground. Actually, NBA Stats has tracked the Nets middle as sharing the ground with Boston’s celebrity for simply 28.6% of their out there minutes, so there was loads of time that Brooklyn needed to get artistic. One of many methods Steve Nash innovated was to place Andre Drummond as much as contact on screening actions involving the budding celebrity, with the hope being that Drummond’s measurement would act as a deterrent for any penetration off the dribble.
Putting Drummond on the degree of the display allowed him to soft-show onto Tatum, forcing him away from the center of the ground, and as such, limiting his alternatives to stress the rim. By this level, it was clear Brooklyn was involved about Tatum’s potential to attain off the drive, and would stay with him capturing tightly contested threes, however that allowed the three-time All-Star to start manipulating Durant’s protection.
As you may see within the above clip, Tatum fakes the drive earlier than flowing into his patented step-back jumper, promoting it simply sufficient to create capturing area earlier than Durant closes the airspace. Bucket.
Playmaking out of traps
If we’re being trustworthy, the Nets didn’t double Tatum practically as a lot as most of us had been anticipating, and definitely not as aggressively as they need to have. Partly, that’s a testomony to the scoring threats all through the Celtics roster, however most significantly, it’s as a result of Tatum smoked the Nets’ early lure system with quite a few high-level passes for scoring alternatives.
There have been all the time a number of Nets in Tatum’s neighborhood, however they not often dedicated two to the ball. However, within the above occasion, the Nets do ship two at Tatum, and it leads to it a quickfire go for Al Horford within the paint. The priority will all the time be that committing two onto Tatum leaves room for Jaylen Brown or Marcus Good to get free, at which level the protection is in scramble mode, and a bucket is more likely to come.
As such, you may completely perceive why Brooklyn went for a extra cautious type of protection, with our bodies round Tatum however not committing to the lure. Right here’s an instance of what I imply, and sure, the 6’8’’ wing nonetheless cooks the protection with a sensible passing learn.
Brooklyn has two gamers round Tatum, however they select to not decide to a lure. As a substitute, they pinch to use stress however guarantee they’re positioned to shut out on a shooter if Tatum makes a learn.
Because of this so many individuals believed that Tatum’s growth as a playmaker was very important to his growth as a star. You may’t over-commit on a participant who can damage you together with his passing, the identical as you may under-commit to someone that’s going to maintain knocking photographs down given a glimmer of area – and now we’re seeing the fruits of Tatum’s labor come to the forefront.
Brooklyn’s protection will evolve
Regardless of how nicely Tatum dealt with Brooklyn’s defensive coverages, we have now to keep in mind that this was simply Recreation 1 of a sequence that many ticketed to go six or seven. The Nets are going to change their defensive schemes, and add new techniques – they’re not going to be stagnant in how they give the impression of being to restrict Tatum’s influence on the offensive finish. Maybe we see totally different matchups, lineups, or extra aggressive double-teams on the catch.
Or possibly Brooklyn resolve to include some extra zone coverages – particularly throughout non-Tatum minutes. In any case, we’re speaking about Tatum being Boston’s reply to Kevin Durant, and we’ve already heard a ton about how the Celtics must reap the benefits of the Nets’ non-Durant minutes, so why wouldn’t they need to capitalize on Boston’s non-Tatum minutes?
With a number of days till Recreation 2, each teaching workers are going to get the chance to dive into the movie and construct out their method to the approaching sport. Nonetheless, we’re seeing an evolution taking place in entrance of our eyes, and with how Tatum is attacking a large number of coverages, the Nets are going to have some troublesome inquiries to reply within the coming days.
