Jayson Tatum’s return to action has been incredibly positive, even though he’s been frustrated for a lot of it. But even though he’s been a little uneven through some of his return, Tatum has found his way to a lot of success.
The Celtics are 8-3 since he’s been back, so he hasn’t been too disruptive. He’s nearly averaging a double-double, and has already put up six of those in his 11 games. He has seven games of 20 points or more and four games of seven assists or more.
So while Tatum is admittedly still finding his legs, he’s also doing better than a lot of very healthy players.
He’s doing well enough, in fact, to win the Eastern Conference Player of the Week award.
NBA
The Celtics went 3-0 this past week, which big wins over teams on significant rolls (Oklahoma City, Atlanta, and Charlotte). He averaged 25.7 points, 9.7 rebounds, 6.7 assists, and a steal in 34.3 minutes per game this week. His 32 points against the Hornets was Tatum’s 16th career game with at least 30 points without committing a turnover, the most in franchise history. The 20 points he scored in the first half was the 66th time he’s done that in his career, the most by a Celtic in the play-by-play era.
Tatum also became the youngest Celtic to reach 14,000 career points, surpassing Paul Pierce. He also did it in the second-fewest games, 14 behind Larry Bird. Tatum is currently Boston’s ninth all-time leading scorer.
All of this is incredibly amazing. He came back 10 months after Achilles surgery, which is a borderline miracle in and of itself. Reasonable expectations upon his return were that it would take some time for him to work his way up to speed, but that hasn’t been the case.
I, personally, expected him to start at a much lower minutes restriction, and for the minutes he got on the floor to look slower and clunkier. But he started in his first game back, played 27 minutes, and put up 15 points, 12 rebounds, and seven assists in a win over Dallas. Three games later he was playing 32 minutes. That lasted only five games before he ramped up to 35 and 36.
Tatum’s efficiency has been an issue, and he’s been prone to some sloppier than normal stretches, but no matter what, Tatum has always found pockets of the game to excel. Winning Player of the Week is usually no big deal for Tatum, but to get it in his first month back from the worst injury a player can suffer is mind blowing.