House explains how Tatum wants to keep Edwards ‘fueling’ the Celtics originally appeared on NBC Sports Boston
The best players in the NBA don’t just score a ton of points. They also want to take on the challenge of neutralizing the best opposing player in defense.
Jayson Tatum did both with the Boston Celtics impressive road victory 118-115 against the Minnesota Timberwolves on Thursday night, and it was yet another example of why he should be a strong candidate for league MVP.
With Jaylen Brown and Kristaps Porzingis out of the lineup due to injury, Tatum scored a game-high 33 points, including 16 in the third quarter. He also grabbed nine rebounds and distributed eight assists, as well as three steals, in 38 minutes of play.
But more importantly, Tatum took on the challenge of guarding Timberwolves superstar Anthony Edwards. And it wasn’t head coach Joe Mazzulla who tasked Tatum with defending Edwards. The 26-year-old winger called for the match.
“He wanted to keep it, so he took on that defensive challenge,” Mazzulla said after the game. “That’s the key for us to get to where we want to get to is that he’s picking up on that, so that’s a credit to him.”
Edwards played well below his standards. He scored just 15 points on 5-of-16 shooting (2-of-9 from 3-point range). When guarded by Tatum, Edwards only scored six points on a 2-for-5 shot (0-for-2 on 3 points) with a turnover.
“Even though I might get lucky, I’m like, ‘Oh, they’re bringing two.’ Or one way, I don’t know, man, I don’t know, I’m watching film, trying to figure it out,” Edwards said after the game. via Brian Robb of MassLive.
“It’s hard to beat two NBA players, you know what I mean? These guys are NBA players. It’s not like high school or college. These guys, 6-8, 6 -9, long time strong, athletic Then they channeled me to the guy who’s 8 feet at the rim, it’s crazy.
Eddie House explained on NBC Sports Boston’s Celtics post-game live how Tatum wanting to guard Edwards lifted his teammates and gave them a boost.
“Since Jaylen Brown is out, your superstar is stepping up,” House said. “He says, ‘I want this challenge. I need it. I don’t avoid smoke, I want that smoke. And what that does is it fuels your team because you see your guy going out there not just wanting to get paper on one side and make money and score points. “No, I also want to keep the best player they have,” which ignites your team.
“It gives you a little extra boost, a little extra juice to go out and do your job a little better than maybe you thought you were going to do when you put them in.” It’s January. It’s starting to become a heatwave. Sometimes it’s hard to find that extra motivation and energy. He gave them a flash of energy in (guarding Edwards).
Tatum leads the Celtics in points (28.5), rebounds (9.5) and assists (5.6) per game. He also excels defensively, and his defensive rating of 108.5 is two points higher than last season.
Tatum probably won’t post the stats required to win the MVP award, especially with Nikola Jokic averaging almost a triple-double for the Denver Nuggets. But it’s pretty hard to find a player in the league who has a bigger impact on his team, both offensively and defensively, than Tatum for the Celtics.
