Jayson Tatum Has A Bit Of A Technical Foul Problem This Season
BOSTON (CBS) -- Jayson Tatum has been putting up some incredible numbers this season. He's racking up points, rebounds, assists -- all the good stuff -- for the Boston Celtics.
Unfortunately, he's also been racking up technical fouls and is toeing the line of being slapped with a one-game suspension.
Tatum was assessed his 13th technical of the season in the first half of Monday night's loss to the Miami Heat. He wasn't happy with Jimmy Butler getting a call for basically falling over as Tatum defended him by the baseline and kept pleading his case to official Justin Van Duyne. His appeal/argument went on too long for Van Duyne's liking, so he made the hand gesture that Tatum had seen a dozen times already this season.
Boston head coach Ime Udoka had a message for his players at halftime, unhappy with how animated his players were to officials throughout the game. He promised to clean up that aspect of the game when he took over the team, saying that he should be the one having such discussions with the refs. For a large stretch of the season, his players were adhering to his advice.
Wednesday night was different though. Arms were flailing and eyes were rolling throughout the contest, as players seemed more interested in giving officials the stink eye than getting back on defense or staying in the play. In addition to Tatum's technical, Marcus Smart was given two and booted from the game in the final seconds.
Smart only has six technicals on the season, so he should be safe from suspension. But if Tatum gets three more this season, he'll have to sit out a game, which is kind of an important detail considering the playoffs are just around the corner.
"I do not want to have to sit out a game," said Tatum.
In Tatum's defense, the officiating in the NBA isn't always at the top of its game. And he gets blitzed and double-teamed more than anyone else on the team, and usually takes a beating without any calls.
But he's said that doesn't excuse him from receiving those techs. On Wednesday night, he said that he's reviewed each of his technical fouls this season, and said he deserved "probably 10 of them."
Wednesday night's technical, however, isn't in that group.
"But tonight, I don't know. That's the one I got to think about and watch. That was a tough one," he said. "I was trying to have a conversation. I was asking questions. It's unfortunate that I got that tech, but just something that we got to move on from and continue to keep playing."
Hopefully Tatum takes that to heart. He and the Celtics should consider themselves lucky if their star player sits on 13 techs the rest of the way.