Getty Jayson Tatum of the Boston Celtics with his son, Deuce Tatum.
The Boston Celtics managed to bounce back from their rough start to the season. After hovering around .500 for most of January, they ended the season at 51-31, good for second place in the Eastern Conference. They now find themselves battling with the Milwaukee Bucks in Round 2 of the NBA Playoffs.
And while the Celtics’ turnaround was most certainly a team effort, a big part of that effort were the improvements of Jayson Tatum. The fifth-year superstar got out to a slow start of his own, but as the season progressed, he began playing like the player most expected him to be.
But despite his Herculean efforts during the second half of the season, Tatum may not even be the most popular guy in his own household. As much as the three-time All-Star steals the show, the one person who steals it more is his son Deuce.
Deuce can be seen sitting courtside at most Celtics home games with Tatum’s mom, Brandy Cole, and Tatum often brings Deuce back to the locker room after games. After Boston’s Game 2 win over Milwaukee, Tatum did just that, and it produced an extremely funny moment between Deuce and head coach Ime Udoka.
Udoka: ‘Everybody Ain’t Your Daddy’
As he was wrapping up his post-game talk with the team, Udoka walked up to Deuce for a fist bump. Deuce could then be heard saying “buckets,” which Udoka then made into the post-game declaration. But before counting down for the moment, Udoka made a funny comment about Deuce’s dad.
“Everbody ain’t your daddy,” Udoka said. The comment earned laughs from the entire locker room. “We can’t all get buckets like your daddy,” he added.
In Deuce’s world, maybe every player is just as good as his dad, who gets buckets on a nightly basis. However, not everyone can put up 29 points, 3 rebounds and 8 assists, which is the statline Tatum managed to notch in Game 2.
But that wasn’t a one-night occurrence, either. Tatum has been getting buckets throughout the entirety of the playoffs this season, dominating his opponent every chance he gets.
Tatum Getting Buckets in the Playoffs
Only five players are averaging more minutes per game than Tatum in this year’s playoffs, and only two of them are still alive in the postseason: Dorian Finney-Smith and Mikal Bridges. Tatum’s making the most of those minutes, too, getting buckets every chance he gets.
Tatum is averaging the third-most points of any player in the playoffs at 28.0 a night. Luka Doncic (33.0) and Nikola Jokic (31.0) are the only two players scoring more than he is, and one of the two has already been knocked out.
The young star is getting buckets efficiently, too. Tatum is shooting 44.4% from the field and 44.0% from behind the arc on 8.3 three-point attempts per game. In addition, he’s averaging 4.5 rebounds, 7.2 assists and 2.0 steals per game.