Jayson Tatum’s record Game 7 shows growth as player and person: ‘It’s only up from here’

BOSTON — On Sunday morning, Jayson Tatum looked down at his phone to see a photo coming in from his skill trainer Drew Hanlen.

Tatum needed to rise to the occasion, find his swagger and save the Celtics’ season yet again. So Hanlen sent two things to prepare him for what could be a crucial game in his career.

One was a video of him burying side-step 3-pointers, a reminder of who Tatum is at his best. Then Hanlen sent him a screenshot from StatMuse of Steph Curry’s record of 50 points in a Game 7 set just a few weeks ago.

“He started out last game with a mentality of I have to be perfect from the jump,” Hanlen told The Athletic after the Celtics beat the 76ers 112-88 to come back from a 3-2 deficit in the second round of the NBA playoffs for the second straight season. “Tonight, he was relaxed before the game, he was loose, and he just trusted himself. The rest was history.”

On Saturday, Hanlen and Tatum discussed getting into the midpost more to create easier shots to get him going early. They looked at his sidestep 3s that have become an afterthought this season, looking for shots that could create separation and give him some confidence. When Hanlen FaceTimed Tatum after the game, he said he yelled, “Stepbacks and midpost!” as Tatum laughed.

“Everyone saw from the jump that he was going to put the team on his back,” Hanlen said. “Did I think he was going to break the record I texted him this morning? No. But I also had all the faith in him showing up and having a big game. When you get things going early in the game, it gives you a bit of a rhythm. Then when you hit the sidestep, it just takes you to another level and you feel unguardable.”

Before the game, a Celtics assistant coach made an offhand comment to The Athletic that Tatum was going to drop 50. The Celtics came into the game feeling the series was a wrap, that the 76ers blew their chance at home to pull off the upset.

But Tatum knew his late flurry of buckets in Game 6 let them get away with a game they probably should have lost. The Celtics got lucky and he didn’t want them to be in that situation again.

“I think going into Game 6, I was too — it sounds crazy — I was like too locked in,” Tatum said. “I was too tight, just too in my own head thinking about what do I need to do? How many points do I gotta score? You know, this is a big moment. And today, I was more myself.”

He appreciated how much winning would have meant to his friend Joel Embiid. They spend offseasons watching each other work out with Hanlen.

Tatum was a front-runner to win MVP early in the season, but he faded as Embiid took over and eventually won the award. That was fine with Tatum. He understood there was something bigger at stake.

When Embiid arrived for the first day of his offseason program last July, he watched Tatum get his work in and then took the floor. He approached Hanlen and quietly asked, “What did JT say about the (NBA) Finals?”

“I pulled Jayson over and said, ‘Ask him.’ ” Hanlen said.

Tatum explained how he wasn’t nervous until he arrived for warmups. Embiid joked he was trying to figure it all out so he can make it this season.

“Jayson said, ‘Once you get there, I’ll tell you one thing, sh—, (nothing) else matters,’ ” Hanlen said. “The only thing that Jayson cares about is winning a championship, and I think he knows to do that he had to become a better playmaker, a batter defender and step it in every area.”

They both took that step forward, finding themselves nearly a year later going toe-to-toe with each other. Whoever won this series was coming out as the title favorite. After two weeks of battles and heroics, this was going to come down to two of the faces of the league battling it out.

“I’ve had a lot of battles. That’s somebody I’m really close with and extremely happy for,” Tatum said of Embiid. “Seeing him win MVP, his reaction. A lot of you guys know we train in the offseason together. I’ve seen him a lot in that light. I’ve seen him develop. I’ve seen the things that he works on and I’ve seen the hard work that went into being an MVP.

“I even talked to him on FaceTime that night, just telling him congrats and I was truly happy for him. That’s just the kind of relationship that we have.”

Even as his season was over and his shot at a ring had fallen apart, Embiid stopped on his way off the court to greet Tatum’s mom, Brandy, and wish her a happy Mother’s Day. Even in a devastating moment, Embiid and Tatum had nothing but love.

Sixers coach Doc Rivers said Tatum’s performance was second only to LeBron James’ iconic Game 6 masterpiece in the same building in 2012, the turning point from which James finally broke through from struggling prodigy to champion in the making.

Could this be the moment for Tatum?

“It’s a movie. It’s a big movie,” teammate Marcus Smart said. “Being able to just sit back, eat your popcorn and watch. Sometimes we do get in that mode where we forget that we’re on the court playing with him and you’ve gotta continue to play.”

Celtics coach Joe Mazzulla knew that to have the confidence to go LeBron on everyone, it had to start outside of his shot. Tatum’s shooting form is a work of art, the definition of balance and precision. When he misses, it comes from fatigue, focus and confidence.

To find that temerity, it starts away from scoring. It begins with everything else he’s done to make up for the fact he couldn’t hit a shot for most of this series. That’s why Mazzulla came to him before Game 7 and said to forget scoring.

“You’re not defined by scoring in my book, and that’s most important. Don’t let your identity be caught up in what others say about you,” Mazzulla said he told Tatum before Game 7. “Your identity is in who you are as a person and how well you can dominate the game in areas that don’t get all the attention. And I thought I saw that from him tonight, and when you do that, you get moments like that.”

“I’ve always been able to score the ball. I’ve always kind of been looked at as a scorer,” Tatum said. “But to be the best player, to be one of the best players, what can I do each and every night on both ends of the floor besides scoring and impacting the game and dominating in those ways?”

Tatum rattled off all the ways he made an impact, even during his extensive slumps in this series. From his countless big rebounds to diving on the floor to streaking across the court for a block on the weak side, Tatum has evolved from being the scorer he once was.

It took a recognition that to make it to the top, you have to accept all the bumps in the road and learn to take them gracefully. That meant no longer being distracted and throwing your hands up when you don’t get a foul and the fast break is going the other way. It means not chucking up heat checks and breaking the offense’s rhythm when you need one to go in.

“You set a standard for yourself and now you have to understand all the sh— that comes with it,” his father, Justin Tatum, told The Athletic. “I was just like focus on (you) less, try to put the ball in more, and find a way to pull your team, and he will. You’ll see he wants to (complain), then he’ll put his head down and jog (back) like f— it, it’s over with. So I like that growth and maturity.”

This Game 7 represented all the lessons Tatum has learned over the years. When he couldn’t find a way to get to the rim around Embiid, he changed his attack angles. He crashed the defensive glass and flew out in transition throughout the night. Eventually, he put the game out of reach by targeting a gassed Embiid in isolation and burying shots over him.

“They want the superstars to be superstars, but they want you to earn it,” Smart said. “You gotta go play, you gotta go take it, they’re not going to give it to you. That’s just what I want him to continue to have in mind. When he gets down, when he’s not making shots, when calls aren’t going his way, it’s a game of ups and downs. You had a down moment, ups are coming. Stay with it.”

Added Tatum: “We have a saying it’s only up from here.”

Tatum was at rock bottom. Smart carried the team in Game 6 and then Tatum showed up when they needed him most. This time, it was all on Tatum.

“I just told him, ‘About time,’ ” Smart told The Athletic. “I said, ‘Listen, I’m too tired to go again. Bruh, you gotta do this one tonight.’ But nah, it was great. I was just ecstatic for him. I was so happy to see him smile, to finally get that monkey off his back.”

Jaylen Brown mentioned throughout the series that this was a game of chess. Tatum and Brown’s evolution has been to recognize their scoring is the queen, but they need to use the entire board to get to checkmate.

So that’s why Tatum has taken so much pride in beating different coverages with his passing, making those cross-court contests on the defensive end and controlling the tempo in transition. Asked after the game about Tatum’s growth as a problem solver, his coach latched onto that phrase.

“I mean, that’s the word, he’s learned how to problem solve,” Mazzulla said. “So he can recognize matchups, coverages, he can anticipate the next coverage, he can see the spacing. He can put guys where they are and make the right play, so that to me is the evolution of players is can they problem solve over and over again, and he’s done that.”

Tatum’s father has seen the progress not just from his time in the NBA, but to the day he first picked up a ball. He thought back to before Tatum was a household name. It was just Jayson, the ball and his teammates. But in reality, it was just Jayson versus himself.

“Now he knows how to funnel through it,” Justin Tatum said. “Back then he would just pout and now he’s put everything together. I could just see when he was one-for-God-knows-what the other night, you could see in his face he was still even-keeled, knowing he was telling himself to find a way to get through it.”

That’s what his coach likes the most about him. It’s the consistency of being who he is and making an impact, regardless of whether his shot is falling. After the Game 5 loss, Tatum sounded shockingly calm.

He plays it cool, but there’s emotion bubbling under the surface that comes out when he hits another stepback 3 or crosses up Embiid to throw it down. It’s that emotion he uses to fuel the fire.

“People talk about him as a player, but the person, who he is, is a reflection of how he plays,” Mazzulla said. “He’s very even-keeled. He has a trust and a loyalty and a character about him. When you play like that and live like that, I think it works out for him. So you see it in his game. I’m not surprised by it at all. He’ll have the humility to keep going, which I think is key.”

“At the end of the day, this is basketball. This is something I’ve been doing since I was a kid, something that I love to do and just go out there and relax and have fun,” Tatum said. “And when you go out there and relax and kind of think about those days when you were a kid at the YMCA or whatever, the game kind of opens up. Just try not to think about the pressure and what everybody’s going to say. Just focus on the game and have fun. I think that’s when I’m essentially at my best.”

It all starts in that gym alongside Embiid. In the summer, Embiid comes in early to watch Tatum work out. Tatum stays late so he can do the same.

They knew the Eastern Conference runs through them — at least when the Milwaukee Bucks collapsed — but they didn’t want to hide from each other and protect their secrets. They wanted to be ready to take each other down on the biggest stage, knowing everything about each other and having to prove their greatness.

“There’s just such a mutual respect,” Hanlen said. “If Joel won an MVP and then beat Jayson in the postseason, Jayson wouldn’t have been able to live with the trash talk all summer. Now it’s going to be a split decision. Tonight was fun. It was fun for (Tatum). I just wish it wasn’t against f—ing Joel.”

But Tatum knows what it’s all about. The MVP would be nice. But once you make the NBA Finals, nothing else matters.

(Top photo: Adam Glanzman / Getty Images)