Boston Celtics (28-11) at Toronto Raptors (9-31) Game #40 1/15/25

[tenn_smoothie]

Difference tonite was overall shooting %, basically 50% to 40% with 3-point% close.
Toronto with 35 assists, though Celts had 24 and points inside 60-40.
Mostly about the lack of Celtics defense and our usual middling, predictable offense.

[celticinorlando]

Jaylen Brown looks like he is on another planet out there. He is going through the motions on nightly basis.

White just has lost his entire game. He looks like he has zero confidence

Hauser does nothing.

Al looks old

Tatum wants to cry over everything

Joe has that deer in the headlights look again

PP only one that plays hard

Cs have not played a lick of defense all season

[Billz401]

Ugly uninspired boring basketball lately. JB and Dwhite no shows yet again. Tatum getting doubled and triple teamed because no one is afraid of any other player besides maybe KP at this point. YUCK

[scaryjerry]

0 shots from Tatum in the 4th.
Not soft at all

[Phantom255x]

Orlando down 27 to Milwaukee right now.

I'M SURE THAT WILL BE A GET RIGHT GAME FOR US ON FRIDAY, RIGHT!??

(it'll probably be Orlando's "get right game" LOL)

[jpotter33]

0 shots from Tatum in the 4th.
Not soft at all

He certainly needs to be more aggressive in those situations and demand the ball in this awful equal opportunity offense, even though that's not really consistent with his character.

That said, a lot of this issue is contextual. First, he only plays half of the fourth quarter thanks to this year's awful rotation pattern, which makes no sense to have your best player limited in playing time when it matters most. Second, the others have been so bad that they're sending tons of help and double teams Tatum's way any time he makes his move, and though he's setting others up nicely, they aren't able to capitalize with tonight being yet another example of a game with numerous missed potential assists from Tatum. And he's just not aggressive/dominant enough offensively to score through those double teams and extra pressure that they're bringing to him when making his moves.

[jpotter33]

The Raptors X/Twitter account just posted this:

https://x.com/Raptors/status/1879724697430241752

It's a screenshot of the final score with a Brandon Jennings picture attached.

Perhaps I'm being a bit sensitive about this, but anyone else feel like this is a bit inappropriate and uncalled for based on the whole situation between Tatum and Brandon Jennings? Like, this isn't the typical competitive fun that you regularly see between teams' social media accounts; rather, this is one referencing an ongoing controversy of a single player on the other team - a controversy that is overall a poor look for the league that is already struggling with its image.

I don't know. This just feels a little out of life to me for all the things they could poke fun at.

[86MaxwellSmart]

Whatever happened to "Our defense leads to our offense"?

[scaryjerry]

The Raptors X/Twitter account just posted this:

https://x.com/Raptors/status/1879724697430241752

It's a screenshot of the final score with a Brandon Jennings picture attached.

Perhaps I'm being a bit sensitive about this, but anyone else feel like this is a bit inappropriate and uncalled for based on the whole situation between Tatum and Brandon Jennings? Like, this isn't the typical competitive fun that you regularly see between teams' social media accounts; rather, this is one referencing an ongoing controversy of a single player on the other team - a controversy that is overall a poor look for the league that is already struggling with its image.

I don't know. This just feels a little out of life to me for all the things they could poke fun at.

Much of the league thinks Tatum is soft and he?s the biggest punching bag on social media because of it
Just be happy we have a top 5 player?he surely could be the best if he wasn?t soft though

[Who]

The Raptors X/Twitter account just posted this:

https://x.com/Raptors/status/1879724697430241752

It's a screenshot of the final score with a Brandon Jennings picture attached.

Perhaps I'm being a bit sensitive about this, but anyone else feel like this is a bit inappropriate and uncalled for based on the whole situation between Tatum and Brandon Jennings? Like, this isn't the typical competitive fun that you regularly see between teams' social media accounts; rather, this is one referencing an ongoing controversy of a single player on the other team - a controversy that is overall a poor look for the league that is already struggling with its image.

I don't know. This just feels a little out of life to me for all the things they could poke fun at.

Agreed -- it is out of line.

Seeing this more and more with these social media pages. They talk more like trash talking fans than a representative of the team / club / franchise. Seeing this in multiple sports.

I get the feelin there are a bunch of kids running these pages. Probably their first job. Not much maturity there. 

[Phantom255x]

The Raptors X/Twitter account just posted this:

https://x.com/Raptors/status/1879724697430241752

It's a screenshot of the final score with a Brandon Jennings picture attached.

Perhaps I'm being a bit sensitive about this, but anyone else feel like this is a bit inappropriate and uncalled for based on the whole situation between Tatum and Brandon Jennings? Like, this isn't the typical competitive fun that you regularly see between teams' social media accounts; rather, this is one referencing an ongoing controversy of a single player on the other team - a controversy that is overall a poor look for the league that is already struggling with its image.

I don't know. This just feels a little out of life to me for all the things they could poke fun at.

It's all they got going for them. 10-31 team, no real future outside of Scottie Barnes (who to me is probably just a better version of Draymond Green, that's it) and oh btw, Tatum has 11 more playoff wins than that entire franchise's history.

On a side note though, I kind of wish they embraced the "underdog" role and the "us against the world". I admit, it's probably harder this year because they just won it all last year thankfully, but I remember for a good chunk of 2024 and even playoffs they really played like their backs were against the wall and did everything to prove the haters wrong (Nick Wright, Perkins, etc.)

[Who]

Some of this recent "Tatum is soft" trash talk is reminiscent of what Dirk went through for many years.

[Phantom255x]

Some of this recent "Tatum is soft" trash talk is reminiscent of what Dirk went through for many years.

It's hard to believe but actually even Lebron dealt with this too, until 2012 Game 6 against the C's in the ECF, and then when he finally broke through with Miami twice. Despite the numbers, durability, etc. he got a lot of criticism as well including "being soft" in the postseason.

It's crazy because Tatum is a humble guy and he's already had some massive playoff performances (road 46-point win against Milwaukee and prime Giannis down 3-2, and 51-point Game 7 vs PHI). And he's won it all + on pace to set historic records for playoff production and wins if he keeps it up.

[SparzWizard]

Some of this recent "Tatum is soft" trash talk is reminiscent of what Dirk went through for many years.

It's hard to believe but actually even Lebron dealt with this too, until 2012 Game 6 against the C's in the ECF, and then when he finally broke through with Miami twice. Despite the numbers, durability, etc. he got a lot of criticism as well including "being soft" in the postseason.

It's crazy because Tatum is a humble guy and he's already had some massive playoff performances (road 46-point win against Milwaukee and prime Giannis down 3-2, and 51-point Game 7 vs PHI). And he's won it all + on pace to set historic records for playoff production and wins if he keeps it up.

The argument will be "why did Jaylen Brown win Finals MVP and not Jayson Tatum"...you know how it is.

[ozgod]

Theyre probably thinking we?re not gonna play Toronto in the playoffs so who cares what the result is. The fans and media gnash their teeth but I don?t think they care about this loss. I don?t think they?re motivated to play at their best against every single team especially these bottom feeders. They play, unlike last year where they had something to prove. I think this team thinks it can flip a switch come playoff time because they did it last year. They just need to make it to the playoffs and they?re not that concerned about seeding.

Obviously for us fans, it sucks because we want them to win and dominate every game, but I think we will probably see more of these than not this season