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ESPN analysts share blunt critique of Tatum and Brown in playoffs

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Jayson Tatum admits the Celtics have had issues with excessive turnovers, and how it impacts their ability to win.

The bigger the stage, the higher the expectations.

Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown have been front-and-center in Boston Celtics' run to the 2022 NBA Finals. The former earned First-Team All-NBA honors while emerging as one of the best players in the entire league, while the latter has averaged 22.7 points per game in the postseason while providing timely scoring bursts for Boston.

The issue for both players has been consistency, however. While Tatum bounced back from a 3 for 17 effort in Game 1 to score 28 points in Sunday's Game 2, he posted the worst plus-minus (minus-36) of any player in NBA Finals history in the Celtics' blowout loss to the Golden State Warriors. Meanwhile, Brown scored 17 points on just 5 of 17 shooting in Game 2 after dropping 24 in Game 1.

Celtics Talk: What's the most infuriating part of these roller coaster Celtics after Game 2 loss to Warriors? | Listen & Subscribe | Watch on YouTube

After Boston's ugly showing in Game 2 at Chase Center, ESPN's Stephen A. Smith and Michael Wilbon weren't shy about criticizing the Celtics' two best players.

"What I find amazing is, with Brown and Tatum, they can't seem to put back-to-back games together," Smith noted on the network's postgame show. "One does it one game, the next guy does it the next game, etcetera, etcetera. They can't seem to put back-to-back elite games together for each other."

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The numbers back up Smith's observation: Aside from a three-game stretch of 30-plus points against the Milwaukee Bucks in the second round, Tatum has topped his postseason scoring average (26.3 points) in back-to-back games on just two occasions during Boston's playoff run. While Brown has been a more consistent scorer (20-plus points in seven of his last nine games), he's also committed at least four turnovers in five of those nine contests.

Most importantly, the Jays have rarely synced up their scoring outbursts: Tatum and Brown have scored at least 25 apiece in the same game just twice this postseason (20 games).

Wilbon wondered whether we should even expect such efforts from the 24-year-old Tatum and the 25-year-old Brown.

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"It sounds so harsh to say this when they’re in the Finals, but are they good enough for us to expect that?" Wilbon asked. "Are we expecting Magic (Johnson) and Big Game James (Worthy)? Are we gonna expect that? Are we gonna expect Michael (Jordan) and Scottie (Pippen)? Are we gonna expect Larry (Bird) and (Kevin) McHale and Chief (Robert Parish) and DJ (Dennis Johnson)? Is that fair?”

It's probably too early to expect Hall of Fame performances from Tatum and Brown, who are making their NBA Finals debuts this season. And it'd be unrealistic to label either player a "failure" if they don't go off for 30 points every night against the best team in the Western Conference that's focusing most of its attention on slowing them down.

But if Tatum especially wants to be considered one of the game's all-time greats, he'll need to string together more elite performances on the game's biggest stage.

"We’re not asking if (Tatum) can show up for one game," Wilbon said. "We’re asking if we can get back to backs. I don’t know the answer to that yet. I think these series help you answer that."

Tatum and Brown can start proving Wilbon wrong as early as Wednesday night when the series shifts back to Boston for Game 3.

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