Tatum's "foursome" in Game 1 against the Heat

[Muzzy66]

I agree, he has made a quite a few major mistakes during crucial (i.e. potential game deciding) possessions. 

This isn't only true against Miami, but was also true against Toronto.  For example in the infamous double overtime game 6 loss there were about 3 times where Boston had the ball with time running down and an opportunity to seal the win, and Tatum made crucial mistakes.  One was the play when he passed the ball to the Raptors coach, the second was the play where he tried to drive into the defender and got the ball knocked away.  IIRC the Raptors ended up making game-changing baskets on both of those turnovers.  Then there was a third, cant remember what that was. 

BUT in fairness to Tatum, he has been (by far) the Celtics best player during these playoffs (followed by probably Smart, to be 100% honest) , and if it wasn't for his excellent overall play the Celtics would never even be in a position where they have to opportunity to make a game winning play - so I guess you have to take the good with the bad. 

And then there's the fact that he's also made some pretty massive plays down the clutch as well - such as the rebound off Grant Williams' missed free throw at the end of game 7 which effectively won Boston the series against Toronto.  That was a pure effort play, and the type of hustle play you expect to see from a hardened veteran, but not so much from a young developing star like Tatum. 

Getting back to the crunch time mistakes - yeah, they hurt.  But it's kinda expected that young, inexperienced guys are going to make mistakes like that.  Especially when you are playing a critical playoff game against a tough, hard nosed team and all of the world's expectatons are pretty much on your shoulders.  He'll get more comfortable with those pressures over time, he'll be playing with less stress, and those high pressure mistakes won't happen nearly as often.  He's already showing huge progress in that regard with the massive play-making improvement he's shown during these playoffs.

But I'll say one thing.  We have a 22 year old Celtic who - in his third year - is an All-Star, made the All-NBA 3rd team, and is carrying his team through the playoffs while averaging 25.7 pts, 10.4 reb, 4.3 ast, 1.2 blk, 1.0 stl on a pretty solid 44.7% / 39.8% / 79.2% shooting.

For comparison purposes, when KD was 22 his playoff averages were 28.6 pts, 8.2 reb, 2.8 at, 0.9 stl, 1.1 blk and he shot 44.9% / 33.9% / 83.8%.  Tatum's numbers are right there and he's already a far better defender (IMO) then Durant was at that time.  As far as I'm concerned Durant was a seriously mediocre defender his entire time in OKC and that really didn't change until he went to GS and had a lot of the offensive load taken off his back.

Tatum is a very special kid.