An appreciation of Jayson Tatum, the anti-load management superstar originally appeared on NBC Sports Boston
Jayson Tatum is allergic to days off.
In a league where so much of the discourse centers around players who can’t consistently stay on the floor, we rarely take a moment to appreciate the ones who do. The Boston Celtics have to practically beg Tatum to even consider taking a rest day, and even then there’s no guarantee he’ll actually accept it when the night comes.
Such appeared to be the case Monday in Miami. For the second time in two weeks, the Celtics listed Tatum on the day-before injury report with right knee tendinopathy, which often hints at a potential rest day. And, for the second time in two weeks, Tatum was deemed available on game day.
“I guess I’m a little hard-headed,” Tatum admitted to reporters in Miami after his third-quarter outburst propelled the Celtics to their sixth win in seven games. “Maybe it’s a plan to find a game for me to rest or whatever and I might agree to it in the moment, then we get down here and it’s like, ’No, I want to play.’”
A couple years back, Tatum told a group of youth basketball players about the importance of playing on a Monday night in Charlotte on League Pass. The proximity to Duke makes that a more alluring spot for Tatum than others, but evidently a Monday night in Miami on the day after the Super Bowl is important to him, too.
Tatum is now fourth in the NBA in total playing time with 1,854 minutes logged this season. He trails only New York’s Mikal Bridges (1,989) and Josh Hart (1,917) and Minnesota’s Anthony Edwards (1,910). Tatum is sixth in the NBA in total touches at 4,140, with only Denver’s Nikola Jokic (5,032), Indiana’s Tyrese Haliburton (4,680), Atlanta’s Trae Young (1,170), Detroit’s Cade Cunningham (4,470), and New York’s Jalen Brunson (4,392) boasting higher totals this season.
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The Celtics need to tamp down that workload before the playoffs, whether Tatum likes it or not. Tatum is playing longer stretches lately, too, often logging full first and third quarters then spilling into the even-numbered frames before he rests.
It’s hard to argue with the results. On Monday night, Tatum shrugged off an underwhelming first half in which he missed his first five shot attempts, only to erupt for 20 third-quarter points on 8-of-11 shooting. Tatum routinely bullied his way to the rim and looked downright unstoppable as the Celtics raced away from the Heat.
Tatum’s outburst came two days after he scored 19 of his game-high 40 points in the third quarter of Saturday’s national-TV triumph over the New York Knicks at Madison Square Garden. Over the last five contests, Tatum is averaging 13.6 third-quarter points per game while shooting 67.6 percent from the floor and 50 percent beyond the 3-point arc.
For the season, Tatum has generated 472 third-quarter points, the second-highest total in the league behind only Oklahoma City’s Shai Gilgeous-Alexander (545).
The All-Star break is in sight, but unlike many of their teammates, Tatum and Jaylen Brown will make the cross-country trek to San Francisco to be part of the mid-winter classic. All-Star weekend is no vacation for players who are typically overloaded with sponsor, league, and community events that fill up their planners. Oh yeah, there’s a game — or multiple minigames under this year’s silly new format — to play, too.
The Celtics have 27 games over 53 days once the regular season restarts. That includes five sets of back-to-backs. Boston brass again will have to beg Tatum to find pockets of rest, especially near the finish line of the season.
Tatum has played a whole lot of basketball the past 18 months. There were 93 games last season, then a multi-continent trip with Team USA before winning gold at the Paris Olympics. The Celtics started the 2024 preseason back in Abu Dhabi — Tatum’s second trip there of the offseason — and have had multiple long road trips here in North America over the past month. That’s a lot of miles for Tatum, on and off the court.
Tatum missed a game in Orlando in late December due to illness. He hasn’t taken a day off since. After he appeared in Boston’s first 21 games of the season, the Celtics managed to get him to take two days off in early December — both home games against Detroit, which Boston swept by a combined 34 points.
Maybe the Celtics would have been fine without him on Monday night. But his third-quarter dominance at least ensured a breezier fourth frame for those who did suit up. Tatum presumably will be right back out there Wednesday night, with national eyeballs on a visit from Victor Wembanyama and the Spurs to close out the first half of the season.
Tatum is the rare anti-load management hero. We need to further appreciate just how much he wants to play in a league where superstars far too often are content to rest.
The best ability is availability. And few stars are as available as Tatum.
