A star who left early
Jayson Tatum finished Monday’s game against Chicago on the bench. He walked off for good with 6:53 left, the Celtics already cruising toward a 134-99 win, and nobody has said whether he will suit up again twenty-four hours later.
Brooklyn visits Boston on Tuesday night, and Joe Mazzulla was in no mood to give anything away. The coach pointed to the team’s sports science staff and said the Celtics will “do what gives us the best chance to win.” Translation: the decision comes late.
Context matters here. Tatum missed most of last season with a ruptured Achilles, so every minute of load gets weighed. He leads Boston at 24 points a game through three outings, which makes the question harder to wave off.
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Brooklyn arrives with problems of its own
The Nets are winless and leaking points. They allow 123.7 a night, and opponents are shooting 50.6% from the field and 40.3% from three. Sunday’s 136-109 loss at Indiana showed the pattern: Brooklyn led 51-49 late in the first half, then watched Indiana close the half on a 16-5 run and score 37 in the third quarter.
Julius Randle did not hide from it. Communication is the biggest issue, he said, and the players are “not all on the same page.” Coach Jordi Fernandez called the play after the first quarter “unacceptable” and listed spacing, pick-and-roll talk and effort among the breakdowns.
The Celtics have the history on their side. They have beaten Brooklyn in 11 of their last 12 meetings, and they have won two straight since the opening-night 121-113 loss to Detroit. Even without their best scorer, that is a hard matchup for a team that cannot defend.
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