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Tim BontempsESPN
Boston Celtics striker Jayson Tatum said Tuesday night that he is still dealing with the after-effects of hiring COVID-19 three months ago and that he has been using an inhaler before games as a means to combat them.
“Close,” he said, after scoring 32 points, along with nine rebounds and five assists, in a 116-115 victory over Boston in Portland, when asked if he would return to 100 percent. “So close.
“It’s a process. It takes a long time. I take an inhaler before the game, because I’ve tested positive. This has helped me and opened my lungs and, as you know, I never took an inhaler. So , this is different.
“I’m sure I feel better now than I did a month ago.”
He added that he is not sure how long he will have to use the inhaler, saying it will be until he feels good enough to play without it.
“There’s no exact timeline,” Tatum said. “[It’s] just when I feel comfortable enough and I think I don’t need it. “
Tatum’s strong performance on Tuesday night – including a 3-point win with 8.5 seconds to go – was his last work in a series of them, which coincides with the best stretch of the season. Boston. The victory in Portland was Boston’s sixth in its last seven games and the Celtics have a chance to go 3-0 in this West Coast swing if they can beat their rivals forever, the Los Angeles Lakers , at the Staples Center Thursday night.
In his last 10 games, Tatum has averaged 29.4 points while shooting just under 50% from the field and just under 40% from a distance of 3 points, including the top 53 points in the race in Boston’s overtime victory over the Minnesota Timberwolves on Friday night. .
Perhaps some of this may be related to Tatum’s continued progress since the impact of COVID-19, something that several of his colleagues have also had to go through in recent months. Tatum noted that after the game to explain, in part, Boston’s disappointing season so far.
“I don’t think our history shows what kind of team we are,” Tatum said. “I think even though it’s been a weird year, we’ve obviously dealt with some of them, sorry, obviously a lot of things. Things, a lot of guys tested positive, some guys have been hurt. But you know in the mostly, we miss Evan [Fournier]. But most guys are healthy. I like the way we’re playing. All the games are important right now and we know he’s going down the stretch.
“Viouslybviament, we want to win. But I think for myself, we, we play the right way and we feel good about ourselves. We won’t win every game, but I think we are playing the right way and we are sure that trend in the correct direction. “
Celtics coach Brad Stevens, however, sees his young star do the same thing he did around that same point last season, when he took off in the weeks leading up to the Chicago All-Star Game and he never looked back.
“It’s about the time, the number of games, where last year it started to take off,” Stevens said. “And you can see that in the last few weeks. You can see that he’s really in a rhythm of knowing what he wants to do in a certain possession and also where his opportunities will come from. And again, it helps when they have these four guys because then you can’t be charged with it like maybe at the beginning of the year sometimes. “
Boston has needed that brilliance in each of the last three games, in which Tatum has scored more than 100 points in total and hit the free throw line 34 times. And, after gaining some momentum, the Celtics hope to be able to continue.
“We’re not excited, we’re not pleased or content with that,” Marcus Smart said. “It’s a start, a start of what we know we have to do. We’ve made a hole in ourselves. We know we have to keep fighting, but it’s encouraging. We use that as a boost to move forward and continue to the next game and try to bring that same energy with these victories in the next game. And that’s really our spirit. We’re not too high in the highs and we’re not too low in the lows. “