Here’s Truth About Celtics, Jayson Tatum’s Playoff Performance

It doesn’t matter what the Boston Celtics do over the next few weeks, as all of the prognosticators, fans and detractors out there will hold the same opinion regardless of how good or bad they look.

You can say the same about Jayson Tatum.

Tatum has been described as “messy” and “underwhelming” throughout nine postseason games, but the fact of the matter is he’s been pretty good. He’s coming off back-to-back road performances where he led the Celtics in scoring and rebounding, so you might look at the box score and think “pretty good” is underselling it. You can also look at a number of individual crunch-time possessions where he dribbles out the clock, takes a contested shot and think the numbers are empty.

The truth? It’s somewhere in between, just as it often is in situations like this.

Tatum has been good, but it’s fair to yearn for more out of a player who has done just about everything but win a championship. He has an unreal resume for someone who just turned 26, sitting just one win away from reaching the Eastern Conference finals for the fifth time in seven seasons.

Celtics fans (rightfully) don’t care about reaching anything, though. They want another banner hanging at TD Garden.

Tatum can’t add one in mid-May, though. The C’s will have to keep winning, and if he carries on his current pace, they shouldn’t have a problem putting themselves in a position to win a championship.

He’s the only player in Celtics history to have consecutive 30/10/5 road playoff games, joining LeBron James, Russell Westbrook, Nikola Jokic and Giannis Antetokounmpo as the only players in NBA history to accomplish the feat. He’s taken on a bigger role on the glass without Kristaps Porzingis in the lineup. He’s still the trigger man in Boston’s offense, scoring a number of run-stopping baskets in Monday’s win over the Cleveland Cavaliers.

Tatum has been good, but it won’t matter to a certain sect of fans until he leads the Celtics to Banner 18, whether that’s fair or not.