The Celtics officially locked up the top spot in the NBA this week with a four-game winning streak capped off a terrific performance by Kristaps Porzingis. Boston will now look to rest up for the postseason as everyone’s eyes are locked in a tight playoff race across the rest of the East. We’ll look closer at a few potential opponents for Boston on that front in this week’s mailbag. If you have questions about the Celtics or NBA, email brobb@masslive.com or tweet @briantrobb
B Robb, Tatum continues to take a pounding on social media for his late game flaws. I understand the frustration but he is still 26 years old and wants to take the final shot. Lebron got destroyed for deferring for years and we have someone who wants it! Why the Tatum hate!?? — Jon R
The narrative around Tatum is a bit fascinating on the crunch time front. As you said, LeBron James took all kinds of heat for deferring for years but this is a different era at this point. With Tatum at this juncture, I think frustration is building up with the process fans are seeing in those crunch time moments. Whether it’s settling for a 3 in a tie game or running the clock down for one shot when Boston is trailing, there have been plenty of questions about his shot selection even before judging the makes and misses.
The Celtics have also revamped their starting five enough this season where there’s is an absolutely loaded supporting cast around him. Tatum could be excused in past years for not wanting to kick it out to Marcus Smart or Robert Williams in a key moment. With Jrue Holiday and Kristaps Porzingis flanking him this season, those concerns about kicking the ball out should have receded. Instead, it feels like Tatum is settling rather than trying to imitate good offense or any type of ball movement in those spots.
Ultimately, crunch time basketball is an imperfect science. Passing the ball around and timing a final shot in a tie game is a risky proposition so isolation sequences in those spots are defensible. However, Tatum’s track record in those spots (in the final minute) for the past two years have been underwhelming to say the least. With so many appealing options around him, it’s time for him (or Joe Mazzulla) to share the ball to create better results for this group.
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Rank the teams in the East that scares you the most for the playoffs? — Bob
1. Bucks: They have all kinds of issues even with the shift in coaching but they also arguably have the best player in the East (Giannis Antetokounmpo) along with one of the best crunch time shot makers in the league (Damian Lillard) to deal with. This is not a team I would want to be playing a lot of close playoff games against if I’m Boston especially when the pressure is upped.
2. Heat: A lot of the supporting cast has changed but they always find a way to make life difficult for Boston in the postseason. The Celtics could exercise their demons with an easy series but until that happens, Miami gets the benefit of the doubt as long as Jimmy Butler, Bam Adebayo and Erik Spoelstra are still together.
3. 76ers: It’s tempting to put the Knicks on here but their injury woes I think will leave them thin against Boston. Philadelphia on the other hand is getting healthy at the right time and Joel Embiid looks a lot better than I expected two months out from surgery. With a proven postseason coach at the helm in Nick Nurse, the Celtics should be rooting for them to be someone else’s problem in the early rounds at least.
Why aren’t the Celtics being more conservative with Brown with his hand injury, or is it really just an nonissue? — Bobby
It has to be a non-issue at this point if Brown is playing in virtually meaningless games. He popped up on the injury report again for Friday night against the Kings so the guess here is he gets some rest off and on through the regular season depending on how it feels. For an injury though, the Celtics will need to take the cautious route at this point in the final six games even if its just bumps and bruises. It’s important to keep the conditioning up for this group but there’s no need to put more of an onus on anyone when there’s nothing at stake.
What will the Celtics do with the final roster spot? I hope they add someone with NBA experience. Don’t really want them to add someone like they did last year (Justin Champagnie) — Spenser P
Barring a surprise change of heart by Blake Griffin, the guess here is they go the younger/upside player route to land someone they want to get a look at this summer/in training camp. With the team fully healthy, there’s really no need to bring a veteran in at this stage beyond being a cheerleader. Any 15th man isn’t going to factor into the equation in the postseason except for garbage time situations. With that in mind, the Celtics might try to find someone they like in the G-League that they could secure a longer look at in Summer League. Rewarded from within (Neemias Queta?) is an option as well but I’d assume all options are on the table at this point. Whoever ends up signing should get a good minutes load in game 82 against the Wizards next Sunday.
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