Celtics look to get Tatum back in a groove

Jayson Tatum went into Thursday night’s game against the Heat in a slump, shooting 31-for-92 (.336) over his previous four games, and 3-for-23 from downtown over the same stretch.

Ime Udoka had several ideas on how to get his star scorer back into a groove, though he has generally liked Tatum’s shot selection.

“One way is always to get him easy baskets,” said the Celtics coach. “You want to get him some near the basket but at times post-ups might not be the easiest thing, you know, you take a tough, contested fadeaway shot that’s not obviously a great shot, it’s not a point-blank layup.

“But also get him to the free-throw line, get him something going to the basket where he gets fouled,” he said. “But in general, my staff and myself feel he’s had great looks. He’s had wide-open 3s, he’s been wide open coming off pin-downs, in isolation he’s missing some chippies. As far as that, we talk to our analytic guys, look at his history and where we can help him out as far as that, and the areas and different actions to help him, but across the board he’s pretty much getting looks that he’s knocked down his whole career. He’s just not making them right now, so we don’t expect that to continue. Keep getting him great, wide-open looks and he’ll be who he is eventually.”

Stoudamire’s connection

When Udoka added Damon Stoudamire to his coaching staff, it was considered a prescient move.

Stoudamire had just coached at Pacific for four seasons after extensive time as an NBA assistant, and based on his own playing career had great insight into point guards. Kyle Lowry, now in Miami, considered Stoudamire one of his earliest mentors.

“Kyle and I talked about that. I don’t think he knew that I knew Damon from growing up,” said Miami coach Erik Spoelstra, who also knows Udoka well because of their shared Portland background.

“He just said that he was one of his early mentors and that makes sense to me. Just two quality guys that love the game, but are students of the game,” said the Heat coach. “You can see how they both gravitated toward each other. And I think it’s great that Damon’s gotten into coaching. He was a really successful college coach. I thought at the time he was possibly going to be coaching at my alma mater. But he did a great job at Pacific and I think he’s also meant to be at this level, too. I think he’s going to be great as a mentor to young players to eventually become a head coach in this league. He has the basketball experience, the IQ, and absolutely obsessed with the game. But he’s fun to talk to, because he really studies and knows the history and everything.”

Richardson a scratch

Josh Richardson missed Thursday night’s game with what the team called a left foot contusion.

“No, not yet,” Udoka said when asked if he was worried. “We think he just took a bump last night. It’s been bothering him since last night, today, we’ll get X-rays looked at. We don’t think it’s anything major but we’ll wait to hear the results from that.”

The Portland connection

From Udoka, Stoudamire and fellow Celtics assistants Aaron Miles and Ben Sullivan to Spoelstra, there were a lot of Portland vibes in the arena.

“I’ve known Ime for a while. I think his story is great,” said Spoelstra. “All the basketball experiences that he’s had overseas as a player and obviously coaching with the Spurs for so many years just makes him such a qualified coach. And I feel like I know his staff really well. It’s like it’s a prerequisite, you have to be from Portland. These are all guys that I knew, except for Will Hardy. He’s like an indoctrinated Portland guy on that staff. But everybody else, I mean, Damon and I go way back. Been a big fan of Aaron Miles for a while. I just think they have a really talented staff and he is a great leader.”

from Boston Herald https://ift.tt/3q9s0Fi