Jayson Tatum and the team suited up with high hopes this Christmas against Philly at TD Garden. But their hopes went berserk when they lost their holiday spirit, with yet another 118-114 loss in the current season. Even as Tatum was roaring with his return, things fell short. Admittedly, the reigning champions know they’re plagued by inconsistencies.

Addressing the same in the post-game pressers, Tatum said, “There’s things that we gotta address. We gotta be better”. He continued, “We got to look in the mirror and man up, and we just got to be better. We fully believe in ourselves, you know, the things that we can do when we’re fully locked in. And we’ve done it time and time again. We just had some lapses recently, and we’ve just got to get back on track.”

Even Joe Mazzulla, the Celtics’ HC, was aware of the offense-defence inconsistencies from the previous games. After referencing that, he added “This game, it was the ‘inconsistent’ in our efforts. So, I think in small samples, we need to play harder. But, if you look at the 30-game sample size, you know, it’s about where we’re at. But yeah, definitely moments where we have to play harder.”

The proof of inconsistency was noticeable during the Christmas Day Game. Despite still recovering from his non-COVID illness, Jayson Tatum delivered an impressive performance with 32 points, 15 rebounds, and 4 assists. He received some assistance from Al Horford too, who also echoes the same sentiment as Mazzulla. “I think that’s a fair criticism from him,” said Horford. He followed, “I just think that we have to really dive into our work a little more and understand that we can’t relax during periods of the game, no matter the circumstance. We have to make sure that we’re a little better in that regard and with this group, and I know that we’re capable of getting it together.”

Horford recorded 17 points, 4 rebounds, and 2 assists in 33 minutes.

Unfortunately, except for these two stars, the efficiency rating of every other Celtics player was negative! As a whole, the Celtics made only 45.3% of field goals and 61.5% of free throws. They had 13 turnovers, with Jaylen Brown recording the most with 5.

Now, with a dangerous January scheduling coming their way in just a few more days, the C’s are falling out of first place in the Eastern Conference in just four games. Their position is not exactly bothering them as they’re aware they haven’t been keeping up with their performances recently.

Jayson Tatum feels the C’s should “navigate the emotional roller coaster” while they still have time

Looking to add some reassurance before he got to the “man up” part, Jayson Tatum exclaimed, “There’s things that we gotta address. We gotta be better. It’s still a long season. Nobody’s panicking. You just have to be able to navigate the emotional rollercoaster of an NBA season. It feels a lot worse than it actually is. We’re not panicking or anything.”

This terminology of riding the ‘emotional roller coaster’ was something that ‘How Bout Them Celtics!’ hosts, Jack Simone and Sam LaFrance, referenced last season during the Finals. The fact that Jayson Tatum & Co. had a comfortable 3-0 lead in their pursuit of winning a title before the Dallas Mavericks pulled one back, was as good an example of a metaphorical roller-coaster as one could make. The same thing is happening here, as occasional losses keep breaking the Celtics’ winning runs.

Therefore, knowing what’s best for his team, Jayson Tatum emphasized to his team to not let panic overcome the efforts. However, that doesn’t mean that the team should not take any lessons from these losses.