{"id":677003,"date":"2026-03-24T20:49:14","date_gmt":"2026-03-24T20:49:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/677003\/"},"modified":"2026-03-24T20:49:14","modified_gmt":"2026-03-24T20:49:14","slug":"how-jayson-tatum-has-exceeded-celtics-expectations-since-return","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/677003\/","title":{"rendered":"How Jayson Tatum has ‘exceeded’ Celtics’ expectations since return"},"content":{"rendered":"

Though he doesn\u2019t yet resemble the player who made first-team All-NBA in each of the last four seasons, Jayson Tatum has performed above expectations since returning from Achilles surgery earlier this month.<\/p>\n

That was Celtics head coach Joe Mazzulla\u2019s latest review of his newly healthy superstar, who has appeared in eight games for Boston since making his delayed season debut on March 6.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere was no expectation other than continuing to get better, continuing to execute, continuing to grow as a player and be in position to help us win, and be the best version of himself and continue to stay and further get healthy,\u201d Mazzulla said Tuesday. \u201cThose were the expectations, and I think he\u2019s exceeded those. And I think he\u2019s continuing to get better, and that\u2019s the most important thing. As we continue to just adjust and learn and grow, he\u2019ll continue to get better there.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut love the mindset that he\u2019s approached with on the games. I love the physicality that he\u2019s playing with. I like the attention to detail, and he\u2019s helping us impact winning, and we\u2019ve got to keep that up.\u201d<\/p>\n

Tatum, who missed nearly 10 months with the injury he suffered last May, has posted encouraging numbers thus far, averaging 19.1 points and 8.9 rebounds while playing on a minutes restriction. He\u2019s been productive as a rebounder and solid defensively, though his offensive game has been hamstrung by poor shooting and prolonged cold spells.<\/p>\n

In his small sample, Tatum\u2019s 38.8% field-goal percentage, 29.5% 3-point percentage and 50.7% true shooting percentage all would be the lowest marks of his career.<\/p>\n

After going scoreless in the first half<\/a> of Sunday\u2019s home loss to the Minnesota Timberwolves, Tatum admitted his shooting struggles have been \u201cfrustrating,\u201d even as he acknowledged that his ramp-up was \u201cobviously going to take some time.\u201d Teammate Derrick White understood his consternation.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou want to come back and instantly get back to yourself, but that\u2019s not how the game works,\u201d White said. \u201cI just think he\u2019s just doing a good job of just every day, being consistent. I think it\u2019s the same thing with his rehab and his recovery. There\u2019s good days and bad days in this game, and you\u2019ve just got to continue to try to figure out different ways to figure it out.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mazzulla said he \u201cabsolutely\u201d likes Tatum\u2019s shot selection so far, saying his early inaccuracy isn\u2019t the result of bad decision-making.<\/p>\n

\u201cI mean, I like the shots that he\u2019s getting, I like the shots that he\u2019s taking, I like the way that he\u2019s driving the basketball with physicality,\u201d the coach said. \u201cAnd again, you can always find your players better shots. I can always find our players easier, better shots. But the ones that he\u2019s getting are good, and we continue to work on that.\u201d<\/p>\n

Despite the frustrations, Mazzulla said Tatum has approached his reintegration with the right mindset. The Celtics are 6-2 this season with Tatum in the lineup.<\/p>\n

\u201cI mean, even if he was 100% healthy, you\u2019d still be frustrated if you weren\u2019t your best self,\u201d Mazzulla said. \u201cThat happens even if you have a bad game when you are the best version of yourself. So I think at the end of the day, when we\u2019re between those lines, there\u2019s no grace. There are the things you have to do. When you step out of those lines, here\u2019s the stuff you\u2019re doing well, here\u2019s the stuff we have to get better and here\u2019s the stuff that\u2019s going to come with time. And you just keep it to that.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe does a really good job of processing that, and we just have to go from there.\u201d<\/p>\n

Tatum\u2019s next challenge will come Wednesday night when he faces the defending champion Oklahoma City Thunder for the first time this season. He and White both sat out Boston\u2019s game in OKC on March 12 \u2014 the only contest Tatum missed since his return \u2014 and the Celtics nearly won without them<\/a>, losing 104-102 on a pair of Chet Holmgren free throws in the final 10 seconds.<\/p>\n

At 57-15, the Thunder boast the NBA\u2019s best record and best net rating. The 47-24 Celtics own the fourth-best record and rank third in net rating, but they\u2019re fighting to hold off the Knicks in the race for the No. 2 seed in the Eastern Conference. New York entered Tuesday just a half-game back in third place.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey\u2019re the champs, and they\u2019re playing really, really well,\u201d White said of OKC. \u201cThese are the games that you kind of look forward to. Win, loss, it really doesn\u2019t matter in a week, but you want to go out there, you want to compete, you want to continue to improve on things that we\u2019ve been working on. So obviously, it\u2019s a big game. I wouldn\u2019t say it\u2019s not a big game. But win, loss, it\u2019s just one game, and we\u2019ve just got to go out there and see how we can be better than we were when we played last.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Though he doesn\u2019t yet resemble the player who made first-team All-NBA in each of the last four seasons,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":677004,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3766],"tags":[7,45,75,3798,46,84537,1243,77,83693,9067,83691,2675,6],"class_list":["post-677003","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-boston-celtics","tag-basketball","tag-boston","tag-boston-celtics","tag-bostonceltics","tag-celtics","tag-celtics-thunder","tag-derrick-white","tag-jayson-tatum","tag-jayson-tatum-celtics","tag-jayson-tatum-injury","tag-jayson-tatum-stats","tag-joe-mazzulla","tag-nba"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/116286125755840887","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/677003","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=677003"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/677003\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/677004"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=677003"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=677003"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=677003"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}