Ochai Agbaji Issues Statement on Defending Jayson Tatum After Jazz Beat Celtics

Jayson Tatum’s struggle for consistency continued on March 18, as the four-time All-Star was held to just 15 points in the Boston Celtics’ loss to the Utah Jazz.

Overall, Utah looked to blitz Tatum as often as possible in an attempt to force the ball out of his hands or to make him take closely-contested shots. When speaking to the media following the game, Utah’s rookie guard Ochai Agbaji discussed how his team looked to limit and frustrate Tatum throughout the night.

“Collectively, we all keyed in on him,” Agbaji said. “He was the guy that we couldn’t have get going in any moment of the game…Talking on defense, Lauri helped me out; we switched to zone for the majority of the second half, so we were just throwing different looks at him.”

The Celtics have now gone 3-2 in their first five games of their six-game road trip and are 7-6 since returning from the All-Star break, a record that is a far cry from the team that dominated the NBA to begin the season.

Celtics Analyst Questions Giving Tatum The Big Shot

With just 35 seconds remaining in the game, the Celtics looked to secure a two-for-one possession, opting to put the ball in Tatum’s hands in the hope that he could knock down a dagger three off the pull-up – a shot that isn’t one of his strongest attributes.

When speaking on a March 20 episode of The Locked’ On Celtics Podcast, Celtics analyst John Karalis questioned the decision to give Tatum the ball when he had been struggling throughout the night, especially for a shot type that he doesn’t excel with.

“What I didn’t like was the Tatum pull up, which, Joe Mazzulla after the game is like, ‘I’ll take that 100 times out of 100.’ And every game, I’m like, ‘really? Because he’s gonna miss 70 times.’” Karalis said. “There’s no reason to expect that he was going to go and have this big, big moment, other than he’s Jayson Tatum. But you know what? I’m tired of that. I’m tired of that notion. Because he’s not there. He hasn’t earned, ‘well, he’s Jayson Tatum.’ He just hasn’t earned that. He hasn’t…He’s not Giannis. He’s not Steph. He’s not KD. He’s not at that level, where you’ve earned the well, ‘he’s insert name. Of course you want him taking that shot.’ I don’t think he’s there.”

Jayson Tatum Willing to Not Take End-of-Game Shots

When speaking to the media following the Celtics’ loss to Utah, Jayson Tatum discussed the final possession of the game, which saw Grant Williams fake a dribble-hand-off before attacking the rim, only to be blocked by Kessler Edwards, noting how he doesn’t mind if he’s not the one taking the final shot(s).

“I mean, yeah. I ain’t got no ego or nothing like that,” Tatum said. “I’m just trying to win. Joe can draw up a play for me, but there are other options. They were kind of denying me the ball, and the ball was in Grant’s hands. And he just had the option to go DHO to somebody else, go attack the basket. We have a baseline of what we try to do, but it’s all about the reaction. So, I don’t have an ego or anything. I wasn’t mad that Grant took that shot and didn’t pass it to me. It’s basketball. I want guys to play with instincts and just read the game.”