Shooters shoot, and Jayson Tatum is a shooter. So what should the Boston Celtics forward do with his shots falling at a reduced rate?
Keep shooting, of course.
That was the advice of Celtics coach Brad Stevens and teammate Kyrie Irving after Boston’s 114-105 loss to the Denver Nuggets on Monday night at TD Garden.
Tatum made just three of his 12 shots against the Nuggets. He went 1-for-5 from beyond the arc, continuing a recent trend of shooting woes for the 21-year-old.
“He’s a really good shooter, he’s a very capable shooter, and I think that ultimately he’s going to knock those down,” Stevens told reporters, per MassLive.com. “Times when you’re struggling, it’s all about getting in the gym and shooting your way through it. And you know, for some guys, it’s about ‘don’t take them.’ But for him it’s ‘shoot your way through it.’ Because that has to be one of his strengths.”
Tatum currently is shooting 36 percent from 3-point territory this season, down from 43.4 percent last season. While this isn’t an awful mark, it’s still a step back for a player early in his NBA development, and he’s gone through a particularly rough stretch of late, hitting just 8 of his 35 3-point attempts (22.9 percent) in Boston’s 12 games since the All-Star break. Tatum also missed a couple of key 3-pointers Monday night that would’ve swung momentum in the Celtics’ favor.
“You just want to give him confidence, keep giving him support, but slumps are overrated,” Irving said, according to MassLive.com. “You’ve got to get FGA’s up to get FGM’s. That’s my motto. So, keep shooting them until you make it.”
At some point, Tatum’s shots should start falling again. In the meantime, expect the budding NBA star to keep chucking them up.
