Here’s how Jayson Tatum and the Celtics relentlessly attacked Kyrie Irving
Tatum scored 54 points in part thanks to an old friend.
Jayson Tatum
Boston Celtics forward Jayson Tatum (0) high fives his former teammate Brooklyn Nets guard Kyrie Irving (11) after the Celtics defeated the Nets. Matthew J Lee/Globe staff
By Tom Westerholm
March 7, 2022
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Jayson Tatum seems to like Kyrie Irving personally, which makes sense.
After all, Irving and Tatum played together on the Celtics for two years — Tatum’s first two season in the NBA. At the time, they shared an agent. They even vacationed together before Irving arrived in Boston. Irving has been spotted playing with Tatum’s son Deuce — a surefire way to get in the good graces of most parents.
So whether Tatum hushed the crowd for Jaylen Brown’s free throws in the closing minutes of Sunday’s 126-120 victory because he wanted Brown to concentrate or because he didn’t appreciate the “Ky-rie Sucks!” chant is somewhat irrelevant for two reasons. The first: You can bet Tatum doesn’t think Kyrie sucks — even aside from their friendship, NBA players as a whole respect Irving’s otherworldly basketball skills.
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The second: No matter how much Tatum and his teammates like Irving, they clearly know how to make his team pay for his defense.
The Celtics started immediately. On the first possession of the game, Tatum ran through a series of screens as the ball-handler. The Nets’ defense bent and eventually cracked because Bruce Brown had to follow Tatum over all of them to prevent Irving from being forced into a switch on Tatum. With the defense scrambled, Tatum found Robert Williams for an easy lob.
That theme continued for much of the night — the Celtics tried to force Irving into switching onto Tatum whenever possible, but they were perfectly content with whatever mismatch emerged if Irving fought his way over screens.
Here’s another one just three minutes later.
This time, Tatum was the screener, but the primary goal of the action was clearly the same: Force the switch and get the ball to Tatum running a pick-and-pop.
Again, the Nets were willing to do what it took to keep Irving from defending Tatum and again they paid the price. Irving fell behind Smart dribbling around Tatum’s screen, Andre Drummond stepped away from Williams to stop Smart from scoring an easy basket in the paint, and Smart tossed a lob to Williams with a flourish.
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Of course, the Nets couldn’t keep Irving off Tatum forever. Irving was badly overmatched in the second quarter.
Irving appeared to voluntarily switch onto Tatum here.
Irving is too short to stop Tatum from pulling up behind the 3-point line (and he didn’t even really bother raising his hand).
There were myriad other examples. On one drive to the hoop, Tatum made Nic Claxton run directly into Irving. On another — perhaps one of Tatum’s best highlights of the year — Irving and Brown teamed up to defend Tatum, and he still somehow escaped for a layup with an eyebrow-raising dribble move.
As a philosophy, the Celtics like to attack mismatches, and they aren’t particularly shy about it. In October, Ime Udoka admitted the Celtics wanted to find LaMelo Ball specifically after a win over the Hornets.
“We wanted to pick on Ball late in the game there, and if it wasn’t Ball, we wanted to put Hayward in [pick-and-rolls],” Udoka said. “So those are the guys we were picking on. … Our plan was to pick on Ball, use our size and hopefully if they helped, then we could kick the ball and get some open shots.”
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So Irving isn’t the first opponent the Celtics have targeted over and over this season. He wasn’t even the only player targeted on his team Sunday — Tatum was opportunistic spotting up from three and cutting, but late in the game, the Celtics happily let him go hunting against nearly anyone. A star like Tatum is a crucial tool for a contender — someone who can warp defenses simply by having the ball in his hands.
“Whether he’s a screener, handler, or getting something off the ball, he can post-up, he can score every way,” Udoka said. “So we like to look for him. We tell guys out in transition to find him. Our bigs go head-hunting and get him open, so it might not be a specific play-call for him, but guys are definitely looking for him when he gets rolling like that.”
Still, Irving’s deficiencies defensively were a problem for the Nets, and they were clearly something the Celtics identified as a way to get themselves comfortable in their offense. That might be a puzzle the Nets have to solve in the postseason regardless of their opponent, but it certainly will be if they meet the Celtics.