Jayson Tatum’s buzzer-beater lifts Celtics over Raptors, but paint problems persist
BOSTON — Looking to end the game in overtime Saturday night, Jayson Tatum didn't even turn to face the rim, much less begin his move, until the clock dipped under six seconds.
Tatum had reasons for his patient approach. Tied with the Toronto Raptors , the Celtics wanted to secure the last shot no matter what. When the ball first went to Tatum with about 12 seconds left, the team's primary objective was to use all of the remaining clock. He first looked to Jaylen Brown , another option on the play, but Brown tumbled to the court following contact from defender Davion Mitchell . After seeing the collision, Tatum believed one of the referees would surely blow the play dead. For a second or so, Tatum stood still with his back to the basket about 30 feet away from the Celtics hoop, waiting for a whistle.
"I really paused for a second," Tatum said.
When the foul call never came, the pressure fell on Tatum. Though he had missed a potential game-winner at the end of regulation, and not just by an inch or two, Tatum said he would never shy away from such a moment. The players he admired growing up, including Kobe Bryant, could shrug off their biggest misses. They always wanted the ball again regardless of how many times they misfired.
With 5.5 seconds left, Tatum pivoted toward the basket, jab stepped to his left and took three dribbles to set up a long stepback 3-pointer. It fell through the hoop as time expired to give the Celtics a 126-123 win.
"I got a lot of problems in life," Tatum said. "Confidence has never been one of them. I've worked too hard at my craft and played too much basketball to ever doubt the next shot, whether it's an in-and-out miss or whether I miss the entire rim, I know what I'm capable of, and you always believe that the next one is going in."
Even if Tatum has always been confident, he entered Saturday on a long drought in end-of-game crunch-time situations. Dating back to Feb. 25, 2023, when he knocked off the 76ers with a long 3-pointer moments before the buzzer, he had missed 11 straight shots with a chance to either tie or take the lead in the final five seconds of the fourth quarter or overtime, including the one at the end of regulation Saturday.
Tatum's first chance to hit a game-winner Saturday night could not have gone much worse. At the end of regulation, his defender fell down, but Tatum still couldn't come close to sinking a long two-point shot. His attempt, which he called "horrible," veered too far left to hit the rim. It crashed violently off the glass instead, forcing the game into overtime.
"Yeah, frustrated," Tatum said. "You want to make every shot you take. Especially in an opportunity like that, you want to seize the moment. But we have overtime. We had more time, a second chance to redeem ourselves and figure out a way to still win the game."
Thanks to Tatum, the Celtics did that. Afterward, they seemed to enjoy rehashing even the painful parts of their close victory. In one corner of the locker room, a group of players marveled at how Jakob Poeltl finished against them Saturday. One of them pointed out that Poeltl shot 16 for 19 from the field. Another chimed in that he's always been able to make the floater he used so powerfully against them. They went back and forth about Poeltl's big game, smiling and laughing, as they could because they won anyway.
They almost didn't. The Celtics, whose rim protection has faltered early in the season, allowed Toronto to score 76 points in the paint. Though head coach Joe Mazzulla believed that number was somewhat misleading because Poeltl's floater is "a shot that you're willing to give up over time," Brown sounded fed up with his team's recent interior defense. During a loss to Atlanta last week, the Celtics gave up 68 points in the paint to the Hawks when they were missing Trae Young .
"Teams are not beating us at the 3-point line," Brown said. "It's not like we want to encourage teams to shoot 3s or anything, but we definitely don't want to just keep giving up layup after layup after layup, so we're going to figure some stuff out. We'll watch it, and we'll adjust."
The Hawks and Raptors might not be juggernauts, but both rank near the top of the league leaderboard in points in the paint per game. They get to the hoop consistently against any opponent. Still, the Celtics have some details to shore up on defense.
They weren't punished in the standings for their shortcomings Saturday. Tatum made sure of that with his buzzer-beating 3-pointer. Though his recent track record in such situations wasn't great, end-of-clock attempts almost always end with low-percentage looks for any player. Because of that, even the best players typically shoot inefficiently on potential game-winners. Tatum has hit enough clutch shots over the years for the Celtics to trust him in any scenario. His list of key buckets, both in the regular season and the playoffs, is long.
"I really just remind him of the work he puts in every day," Mazzulla said. "More times than not, more people miss game-winners than they make them. So, just have a perspective of understanding you have to be willing to take it, and when you don't make it, you have to be willing to shoot the next one. So, he has the work ethic, the mental toughness to work through all those things, and you just got to rely on the work ethic that you put in, and he does that."
The other Celtics players sounded thrilled to avoid an extra five minutes of basketball. Al Horford said double overtime "wouldn't have been it."
"The last thing we wanted to do is go into double overtime against the Toronto Raptors," echoed Brown.
Tatum's big shot allowed the Celtics to walk away with an uneven win. For him, personally, the bucket was meaningful. He said it "felt good to finally hit one of those."
"Every kid growing up, in their driveway or in a gym or at a park counted down out loud and envisioned themselves in a moment like this," Tatum said. "For me, I've always wanted to be a part of those moments and never worry about if you miss or things like that. I've never been scared of the outcome, good or bad."
(Photo of Jayson Tatum's game-winning basket: Winslow Townson/)
