Jayson Tatum added Giannis and the Bucks to his growing list of conquered foes with Boston’s convincing win over Milwaukee on Sunday.
1) As far as Christmas presents go, this was a lump of coal.
On paper, this was the most intriguing game on the NBA schedule: a 1-2 battle, a possible (probable?) conference finals preview between two MVP hopefuls in Jayson Tatum and Giannis Antetokounmpo. However, what began as a competitive game in the first half quickly devolved into a farce, with Boston outscoring the Bucks 38-25 in the third quarter and Mike Budenholzer waving the white flag with four minutes remaining in the fourth.
In this one, Boston played to its strengths. The NBA’s top offense made 58.8% of its shots. The sixth-best three-point shooting team in the league shot 48.7% from deep. Tatum and Jaylen Brown, who have scored the most points in the NBA this season, combined for 70. With Robert Williams back in the lineup, the defense held Antetokounmpo to 27 points on 9-of-22 shooting.
The NBA was clearly hoping for some holiday drama—fun fact from Celtics radio announcer Sean Grande: the Celtics did not play a home Christmas game until 2017 because late team president Red Auerbach wanted team and arena employees to have the day off—but this one quickly became one-sided.
2) Is Jayson Tatum the MVP Leader?
There will be plenty of squabbles in Denver, where two-time MVP Nikola Jokic is putting up the kind of stats (on the kind of team) that will put pressure on voters to award him a third MVP award. Tatum, on the other hand, put on a show on a big platform. He had 41 points. He grabbed seven rebounds. Also he contributed five assists. Then he just needed 22 shots to score, owing in part to 10 trips to the free throw line.
Tatum has developed into a relentless scorer. His 47.1 percent shooting percentage is a career high. According to ESPN, he leads the NBA in real plus/minus. According to NBA.com, his per-game plus/minus (7.5) was second only to Jokic among players who played at least 30 minutes per game. He has the most 40-point games of any player this season. In December, he defeated Jokic, Kevin Durant, and Devin Booker in MVP fights. He’ll be able to add Giannis to the list after Sunday.
The NBA season is still young, but if the Celtics keep winning, Tatum will be difficult to beat.
Will Khris Middleton Solve the Bucks’ Problems?
We can’t truly foresee a Bucks-Celtics playoff matchup because the injury-plagued Middleton hasn’t played in this game in a long time. Middleton was in street clothes again on Sunday, still recovering from a lower leg ailment that kept him out of the conference semifinals last season.
Milwaukee’s offense has struggled without Middleton, falling from third to 17th in efficiency last season. Budenholzer has urged patience with Middleton, but the realities are that the NBA ironman has missed more games this season (26) than he has since the 2016-17 season, and his injuries (knee, wrist, ankle) appear to be everywhere. The Bucks don’t need to rush Middleton, but if they learned anything during the holidays, it’s that they’ll need him to beat Boston.
