MIAMI — It only amounted to 38 minutes, and with a potential rest night ahead following his questionable status entering Celtics-Heat on Monday, Jayson Tatum logged the entire third quarter and obliterated Miami’s defense — converting 8-of-9 at one point. He scored 20 points in the frame on his way to 33 just two days after torching the Knicks for 19 in the same quarter.
The Celtics led by 20 points into the fourth on Saturday after the Knicks cut the lead to three at one point in the third. This time, their advantage mounted to 23 over a Heat team that shot 31.3% in the first half. Yet Tatum kept playing and playing and playing, until 2:39 remained with a 22-point edge securing a 103-85 win — and then some. He played 21 straight minutes after logging 15 to open the second half on Saturday.
“I was just trying to stay in in that fourth quarter and put the game away,” Tatum said. “I thought it was gonna only be an extra 2-3 minutes. It was a little longer than that, but I’m alright.”
If Monday’s win marked the end of Tatum’s first half, he launched into the break with three games where he stretched close to or over the 40-minute mark to complete wins over the 76ers, Knicks and Heat where he scored 35, 40 and 33 points, respectively, on 39-for-72 (54.2%) shooting. Joe Mazzulla liked the groove Tatum played with through the third after storming off the floor to finish the second quarter when the Heat finished a 7-0 run into halftime with a Bam Adebayo bank shot three.
Seconds earlier, he motioned at Tatum when he didn’t get back on defense following his missed layup. Tatum later took the blame for the run for that miss and an ill-advised three. He said Mazzulla let him know that he put the Celtics in tough positions with the plays. Tatum and the team’s third quarter effort answered the coach’s latest halftime call-out, and further limited the Heat to 31.8% shooting. Mazzulla noted Tatum’s defensive, rather than offensive, effort causing him to keep Tatum in the game — along with Jaylen Brown (knee) and Jrue Holiday’s (shoulder) absences.
“Just feeling the game out, seeing what we need,” Mazzulla said. “He’s playing really well, he’s in a groove, he’s creating for himself, creating for others, but to me, it’s when he’s locked in defensively, I enjoy giving him the freedom to play more. So he’s getting more minutes, but he’s doing the right thing on both ends of the floor, especially defensively.”
The Celtics won the third, 36-22, and held the line in the fourth, losing Tatum’s time on the floor by one point in that frame. He finished the night fourth in total minutes across the league with 1,854 behind Mikal Bridges, Josh Hart and Anthony Edwards. Last year, more rest reduced his load to 16th, which could come in the second half. For now, he’s helped the Celtics overcome injuries and inconsistencies elsewhere while fighting off planned nights for him to take off.
Tatum said on Monday that sometimes he and the Celtics discuss doing so then he’ll arrive at the game and decide to play. He entered the game questionable with right patella tendinopathy and last sat against the Pistons on Dec. 12 before an illness scratched him late on Dec. 23 at Orlando. As for the extended stretches of consecutive time, he enjoyed the rhythm it allowed him to build against the Knicks and felt fine following the longer one two nights later in Miami. Naps, Gatorade and his trainer Nick Sang get him through them. And they could prove instructive for later, with Tatum typically sitting out to rest halfway through the third recently, the Celtics could adjust to playing him through that stretch more often to put games away earlier. The best way to find rest.
“I don’t think he has a problem with that,” Al Horford said. “He can definitely do it. He’s more than capable. He’s prepared himself, physically, for these type of moments. It’s a luxury that we have for him to be consistent and every time, we’re asking a lot out of him, initiating the offense, score, pass the ball … he has to defend. There’s a lot that goes into it and he just embraces that, but those are the kind of things that he’s able to do.”
