Should the Boston Celtics be worried about Jayson Tatum’s struggles vs. the Denver Nuggets?

celtics wire

Sun, Jan 21, 2024, 8:56 PM·2 min read

All-NBA Boston Celtics forward Jayson Tatum is poised to become the best player in the league by the time he is in his late twenties. But for now, the St. Louis native still has plenty of work to do on his game. And that came out in glaring fashion in the Celtics’ recent 102-100 loss to the reigning NBA champion Denver Nuggets at TD Garden, especially in the clutch.

Admittedly, Tatum has grown visibly as a player just from the last postseason to what we have been seeing on the court in the league’s 2023-24 regular season. But under the greatest pressure, he (and to an extent, fellow All-NBA forward Jaylen Brown as well) tends to revert to his worst habits, leaning into tough shots and ISO-heavy play.

These bad habits recently had the eponymous host of the Volume “Hoops Tonight with Jayson Timpf” podcast questioning whether the Celtics ought to be concerned by those habits given their loftiest of aspirations for the season.