mjkvol wrote:Negrodamus wrote:I really sucks that we are a braindead team because this Tatum we're seeing down the stretch is the same Tatum we saw most of the series. Everyone forgets because he put up 50 on us while we were on quaaludes in game 7.
I was thinking this while he was going berserk in a blowout game and Breen and Jackson were anointing him as the next One. This is a guy who has come up small most of his career in big spots, and we saw the return of that guy last night. It's a bit different when you're up against a big game assassin like Butler.
Yea, he's just not a guy to demand the ball and cook. Brown has more of that gene in him but even he tends to defer for much of the game. It's crazy watching Tatum struggle to get off defenders and take over the game. We completely nullified him for many stretches in our series because he's not much of a ball handler and is way more comfortable on C&S, pull up jumpers. That's why the game plan of forcing him to drive was working so well (props on only that Doc).
That said, he is a natural scorer and it's insane to think he's going to sleepwalk through an entire series. He'll probably win at least one game on his own insane scoring merit against the Heat. Meanwhile, superstar Jimmy Butler is carrying the Heat every single game. It's not even fair to compare the two in terms of importance.
Except Oden manged to play over 100 games in the NBA, I don't think Embiid will play more.
