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Hey! Charles Curtis here to talk some hoops, and I’m the happiest that Game 1 of the NBA Finals was a close one (despite the final score). It means we’re probably in for an incredible rest of the series of back-and-forth hoops.
The thing I took away from Thursday was to readdress something I wrote literally a month ago for this very newsletter.
I declared — and continue to say — that Jayson Tatum isn’t quite a superstar yet, but he’s right there, about to perhaps take the leap that will propel him into the conversation about best NBA players right now.
And in Game 1 of the Finals, we saw him struggle to shoot. He hit just 3-of-17 attempts, not great for the player who’s supposed to be the 1A to Jaylen Brown’s 1B (or is it the other way around?).
But then there were the 13 assists, a sign that he knew that he needed to help out a different way when he shot just wasn’t falling. And Al Horford noticed (via NBC Sports):
“His playmaking has gotten better steadily. Tonight it was just brilliant. Offensively he didn’t really get it going scoring-wise, but then he was finding guys. He was reading the defense. It just shows his growth.”
That pretty much sealed it for me. It’s a great point from a player who knows brilliance when he sees it, and I’m ready to change my mind, at least heading into next season, maybe even in the next game.
A leap is coming from Tatum, it’s just a matter of when, not if.
The Tip-Off
Some NBA goodness from around the USA TODAY Sports network.
There’s an interesting trend going on with betting on the spread in the NBA Finals, as our Prince Grimes noted after the Celtics won:
Since 2005, teams that get 40% or less of the bets wagered in a Finals matchup have gone 14-7 against the spread, according to a tweet from BetMGM’s John Ewing. So basically, people who have bet against the whichever side the public heavily favors during the NBA Finals have won more than 66% of the time.
Want to take a guess at what happened Thursday? Yep. It’s a good idea to bet against the public right now!
Shootaround
— Al Horford hit a Dray-like flex and blew a kiss after Game 1. What a night for him! He currently leads my NBA Finals MVP rankings.
— Meet Jeremy Sochan, the most “versatile” and “disruptive” prospect in the 2022 NBA Draft.
— Patrick Beverley has thoughts on what happened in Game 1
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