Is rookie-year Jayson Tatum far enough ago, and revered enough, for this performance to count as VINTAGE Jayson Tatum? I would argue that, yes, this 9-of-14 shooting display is reminiscent enough of Tatum’s glory days to be accurately termed a VINTAGE performance from him. I would also say that Tatum’s rookie year, despite being lower-volume than his current self, was good enough that it represents PRIME Jayson Tatum. Anything after his rookie season is him leaving his prime and slowly declining. Kind of like Michael Carter-Williams, except Tatum’s prime was actually good and wasn’t just an illusion of being good.
It’s too bad that even VINTAGE Jayson Tatum, who TURNED BACK THE CLOCK, couldn’t get the win against a mediocre Mavericks team. Lately, Tatum himself hasn’t been blameless in some Celtic losses, but this time around, I’m targeting Kyrie (same amount of makes as Tatum on ten more attempts), Hoford (played like booty juice), and Wary Terry (purposely tanking his trade value) for the blame here. And Celtics fans themselves for not properly colonizing the Mavericks’ arena. How are the Celtics supposed to win a road game if the arena isn’t half Celtics fans?