NBA
Jayson Tatum believes he’s not in the MVP race because in Boston they ‘share the wealth’
The NBA-leading Celtics are determined to reach the Finals at the end of the season, but are taking it day by day. They started off with a 20-match home winning streak, but finally lost to the Nuggets last Friday at the TD Garden, right when they were convinced they were invincible.
This is precisely why they’ve decided to take it one game at a time. “That one stung,” Jayson Tatum confessed after losing 102-100 to the reigning champs this past weekend.
“We are taking it one game at a time, but once you go on that streak, you really try to lock in and not mess it up,” the forward explained. “But it’s been great. I feel like we play in front of the best fans on a nightly basis. You try to repay them by playing the right way and winning because they show up every night to support us. They always give us that energy.”
There’s nothing Jayson Tatum can do to win MVP this year and that’s fine
We’re just too stacked. Even without JT we’re probably a playoff team and that ruins his case
But because of him, we’re hands down the best team in the league, so it’s hard to quantify ‘value’ pic.twitter.com/KLP5Vy3nGC
— NBA runs on Celtics (@TheCelticsX) January 19, 2024
“So many times we’ve been down going into the fourth quarter, and they give us that boost and we just take off from there,” he stated.
One thing is to focus on the team, another is to work on your personal growth to earn individual accolades. The thing is, even though Jayson’s stats have gone down this campaign, his team is playing better than ever. Strange, isn’t it?
According to the 25-year-old, he isn’t contending for the MVP title because of the way Boston plays the game. “You’ve got some guys playing unbelievable basketball,” Tatum explained. “Embiid averaging 35 a night. And Jokić and guys like that. It’s a little tougher with the team that we have. Nobody has taken a step back, but in terms of our numbers we have so much talent on our team, and we share the wealth.”
Nevertheless, the superstar will be looking to increase his personal stats as he’s averaging 26.7 points, 8.3 rebounds, 4.4 assists and 1.0 steals per contest while shooting 46.7% from field goal attempts and 36.3% from beyond the arc this season.