DeMarcus Cousins Reflects on Jayson Tatum’s Scoring Struggles After 2 Games of 2024 NBA Finals

The Boston Celtics may lead the series against the Dallas Mavericks but Jayson Tatum’s performances have been an aspect to dwell upon. Expressing her doubts over Jayson’s efforts on the offensive end of the floor, Rachel Nichols joins DeMarcus Cousins on his podcast as the two reflect upon Tatum’s scoring struggles.

Rachel Nicols joined DeMarcus Cousins on All The Smoke’s Bully Ball podcast. The two discussed other players rising to the occasion amid Jayson Tatum’s struggles and probably winning Finals MVP over him.

“This Celtics team, they’re so good and so talented and so deep, Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown could struggle and they would still win games…He (Jayson Tatum) has a partner in crime and I don’t wanna say sidekick because I don’t look at these guys as sidekicks.”

“We can go to the other side and talk about Kyrie and Luka. Nobody says Kyrie is Luka’s sidekick. They say it’s his partner in crime…So, I don’t understand why it’s not the same narrative when it comes to the Celtics.”

The very first thing DeMarcus Cousins went on to highlight is the amount of talent there is on the Boston Celtics roster. Cousins not only praised the Celtics’ starting five but also tipped his hat to Boston’s bench and the depth they possess.

One aspect Cousins refuted was the ‘sidekick’ term being used when it came to Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown. Boogie mentioned how the narrative is not the same when it comes to Kyrie Irving and Luka Doncic but when talking about the Celtics duo, the two stars are not given the same respect.

But when it came to Jayson Tatum not averaging his point production in the finals, DeMarcus Cousins saw no problem in it. He did not view Tatum’s performance as lackluster. According to Cousins, Tatum focusing on other aspects of the game while averaging a little under his usual point production should not raise any alarms as the team is still finding success while JT is focusing on other aspects of his game.

Jayson Tatum faces heat over his lackluster performance

Jayson Tatum could not give fans the performance they were expecting out of him during these NBA Finals. Usually averaging 25.2 points per game, Tatum’s PPG average has fallen to 21.7 in the finals.

While his averages taking a dip may not be that big of an issue, Tatum’s excuses for struggling from the field drew NFL legend Shannon Sharpe to go off on the Boston Celtics star.

“Kobe got double-teamed. KD, LeBron, Michael, all the great players get double-teamed. We’re asking him to be the face of the NBA and now we’re saying he is struggling cause he got double-teamed?… He is struggling shooting the basketball.”

Regardless of Tatum’s struggles, other players on the team rose to the occasion and now the Boston Celtics are a win away from being NBA champions as they took Game 3, defeating Dallas at their home turf.