SAD NEWS : Boston Celtics super star Jayson Tatum confirm dead at 26 from a fatal accident
As the final week of the NBA’s regular season unfolds, certainty only goes so far: The 20 teams that will make up the postseason field have clinched their spots, but none of the first-round matchups have been set.
When the jockeying for seeding ends Sunday, the sport’s attention will return to the championship chase, which sees the Denver Nuggets shooting to repeat, the Boston Celtics lapping the field in the Eastern Conference and a murky pack of challengers. These five stars have the potential to bring the championship picture into focus, but they must distinguish themselves over the next two months or face the wrath of disappointed observers and yappy second-guessers.
Last year’s pressure-cooker candidates perfectly represent the boom-or-bust reality at play: Denver’s Nikola Jokic sloughed off years of doubts about his playoff capabilities with his crowning glory, while Ja Morant’s career imploded after the Memphis Grizzlies’ first-round exit and Kevin Durant’s Phoenix Suns undertook a radical overhaul after a second-round defeat.
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Damian Lillard, Bucks
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Given the excitement that greeted his blockbuster trade from Portland in September, Lillard has a strong case as the NBA’s most underwhelming star. Look past his All-Star Game MVP performance and there are a bunch of lingering red flags: his unrefined partnership with Giannis Antetokounmpo, his central role in Milwaukee’s porous perimeter defense and his new team’s lack of chemistry.
Lillard and Antetokounmpo have yet to prove they can consistently make the Bucks’ whole greater than the sum of their parts. Instead of forging a smooth pick-and-roll partnership as many expected, Lillard has settled somewhat uncomfortably into a secondary role while Antetokounmpo occasionally has been marginalized in late-game situations. When the Bucks come across a playoff opponent capable of slowing Antetokounmpo’s assaults on the rim, their top-five offense will become heavily reliant upon Lillard’s three-point shooting, which has been streakier and less efficient than his career standard this season.
The acquisition of Lillard also required sacrifices in depth and two-way talent, leaving Milwaukee ranked 19th in defensive efficiency — the worst mark among the league’s top title contenders. In Portland, Lillard’s shortcomings as a defender were easy to look past because he was the sole engine of the offense and his supporting cast was usually overmatched. In Milwaukee, he is bound to be targeted by opposing coaches during the playoffs and could wind up looking like the weakest link.
There have been calls for patience: Milwaukee’s stars needed time to get to know each other, to adjust to a midseason coaching change and to work Khris Middleton back into the lineup after an extended absence because of an ankle injury. Well, time’s almost up, and the Bucks have yet to crest, instead suffering a string of embarrassing losses last week.
Trading for the 33-year-old Lillard was a title-or-bust decision for a Milwaukee team that lost in last year’s first round, and the longer-term view looks dim given how many of Antetokounmpo’s key teammates are headed for age-related decline. This will be a now-or-maybe-never postseason for the Bucks and especially Lillard, who requested a trade from the Trail Blazers so he could have a chance to win it all. To make matters worse, the Miami Heat and Philadelphia 76ers loom as potential first-round matchups capable of sending the Bucks into another spiral.
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Jayson Tatum, Celtics
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Much like the Bucks, the Celtics were plunged into existential crisis last summer by an unexpected postseason loss to the Heat. However, their major offseason additions — Kristaps Porzingis and Jrue Holiday — fit in quickly and neatly, boosting the juggernaut Celtics throughout a 60-plus-win season.
Jayson Tatum is aiming to lead the Boston Celtics to their second Finals appearance of the past three seasons.
But Tatum, who is already heading into his seventh postseason appearance at 26, knows he will only be judged by the ending. His shaky showings to close the 2022 NBA Finals and the 2023 Eastern Conference finals surely contributed to Boston’s aggressive moves last summer, and he deserves credit for taking a half-step back on offense to accommodate the reinforcements. Tatum’s two-way contributions, consistency, excellent health and unselfishness clearly make him a top-five MVP candidate, even if his individual numbers aren’t as gaudy as some of his competition.
Depending on how the East’s matchups shake out, there are scenarios where Boston could skate to the East finals, which would only reinforce its Goliath status. Eventually, though, the Celtics will be tested, and they must perform better in late-game situations than they did in the past two postseasons. Porzingis and Holiday give Boston a wider range of options, but ultimately Tatum will find himself in position to decide games — by taking key shots or by making the right reads in the final minutes. Though Celtics management has set the table as well as it can for Tatum’s championship breakthrough, he must be the one to see it through
