As the Cavaliers defeated the Magic 106-94 at home, the last set of semifinal matchups was officially announced: Cavaliers vs Celtics .
Relatively speaking, the suspense of the outcome of this matchup is not very high. As the favorite team to compete for the championship this season, the Celtics achieved a league-leading 64 wins and 18 losses in the regular season, and swept the Heat 4-1 in the first round. It seems difficult for the Cavaliers to stop them. .
However, in this round of the series, there is a direct match between two people that is still worthy of attention, that is Tatum vs. Mitchell.
In the 2017 draft, Tatum was selected by the Celtics with the 3rd overall pick, and Mitchell was selected by the Jazz with the 13th overall pick.
In the public opinion environment at the time, neither of them was very optimistic, or they did not receive enough attention.
Fultz has already booked the No. 1 pick in advance, and the Lakers have re-elected Ball and older rookie Kuzma. Josh Jackson and Fox have also received a lot of attention.
However, after the start of the season, Tatum and Mitchell gradually overshadowed them. In the end, the two were selected into the All-Rookie Team without any suspense.
If Simmons hadn't been the No. 1 pick that year, Tatum and Mitchell would have fought to the death for the Rookie of the Year award.
But when the playoffs kicked off, Tatum and Mitchell really showed how good they are.
Objectively speaking, the performance of Tatum and Mitchell in the playoffs of their rookie season has rarely been such a wonderful duel between rookies in the 21st century.
On Tatum's side, due to Irving and Hayward being reimbursed for the season, Tatum took over the role of the team's boss ahead of schedule. He averaged 18.5 points, 4.4 rebounds and 2.7 assists in 19 games. Not only was he the team's scoring leader, He also led the team to eliminate Antetokounmpo's Bucks 4-3 in the first round, swept Embiid and Simmons' Sixers 4-1 in the semifinals, and barely managed to fight James' Cavaliers in 7 games in the Eastern Conference Finals. Defeated.
In other words, Tatum almost prevented Qi Yong from fighting for the fourth consecutive year. In that year's playoffs, Tatum scored a total of 351 points, one point shy of Kareem Abdul-Jabbar's record as the first rookie to score in the playoffs.
On Mitchell's side, in his first career playoff series, his opponent was the Thunder Big Three consisting of Westbrook, George, and Anthony. This series was initially seen as one-sided, but Mitchell subsequently scored 33 points and 28 points in a row, and scored 38 points on 14 of 26 shots in G6, personally sending the Thunder's Big Three home.
Unfortunately, in the second round against the Rockets , which had Harden and Paul, Mitchell was ultimately defeated, and they failed to touch the floor of the Western Conference Finals.
As mentioned above, rookies like Tatum and Mitchell shine in the playoffs. Take the high-ranking rookies in recent years as an example, Towns, Edwards, Zion, including Vunbanyama. Whenever we mention their rookie seasons, it seems that they can only brag about their regular season data.
The rookie performances of Tatum and Mitchell seemed to tell us from the beginning that their stage is in the bigger playoffs.
In the 2018-19 season, Tatum once again played one more round than Mitchell.
But Tatum's Celtics were eliminated in the semifinals, and Mitchell also suffered a first-round trip against his old rival Rockets for the first time in his career.
In the 2019-20 season, the two have grown into third-year students, and they once again performed extremely well from a distance.
The Celtics experienced a dismantling of the team in the summer of 2019, and Tatum officially became the new core of the team. As a third-year player, he averaged 26 points, 10 rebounds, 5 assists, 1 steal and 1.2 blocks per game in the playoffs, and led the team to sweep the 76ers in the first round and eliminated the Raptors in a tiebreaker in the semifinals to advance to the Eastern Conference finals.
Although Mitchell and the Jazz failed to go further, Mitchell delivered an unparalleled personal performance.In the 7 games against Nuggets in the first round, Mitchell's scores were: 58 points, 30 points, 20 points, 51 points, 30 points, 44 points, 22 points! Unfortunately, the Jazz were reversed by the Nuggets with a 3-1 lead.
In the 2020-21 season, Mitchell defeated Tatum in the playoffs for the first time.
With Jaylen Brown out for the season, Tatum scored 50 points to lead the team out of the play-offs. Don't think this is easy. In recent seasons, many stars have fallen into the play-offs, including Curry, DeRozan, Ingram and so on. In the playoffs that season, the Celtics were eliminated by the Nets 1-4 in the first round. This was also the playoffs in which Tatum played the least amount of games so far. In the 5 games, except for G2 who left the game early due to an eye injury, Tatum scored 22 points, 50 points, 40 points and 32 points in the remaining 4 games.
Mitchell has the best opportunity to hit the Western Conference Finals. Facing the Grizzlies in the first round, Mitchell had to sit out due to injury. Then he quickly returned and led the team to win 4 consecutive games and advance to the semifinals. Facing the Clippers led by George and Leonard, Mitchell performed as well as the opposing superstars, scoring 45 points, 37 points, 30 points, 37 points, 21 points and 39 points in 6 games respectively. It's just a pity that the Jazz lost 4 games in a row to the Clippers with a 2-0 lead and were eliminated.
Starting from the 2021-22 season, the fate of the two began to change.
Tatum led the Green Army to take off in 2022, and they won the second place in the Eastern Conference in the regular season. Tatum first led the team to a 4-0 sweep of Durant and Irving's Nets, then scored 46 points in the semifinals G6 to save the Celtics and defeated the defending champion Bucks in a tiebreaker, passing the Eastern Conference Finals again. After eliminating the Heat in 7 games, Tatum won the first Eastern Conference Finals MVP trophy in NBA history.
At the same time, Mitchell quietly ushered in the last season of his Jazz career. After scoring 32 points and leading the Jazz to a G1 victory, Mitchell and the Jazz were reversed again. They lost to the Mavericks 2-4 and were eliminated. Among them, in the Battle of Tianwang Mountain, Mitchell only scored 9 points on 4 of 15 shots, creating the worst performance of his career in the playoffs. That summer, the Jazz announced their reorganization, and Mitchell left for Cleveland.
are in the same competition area, so the two strongest duo in 2017 have more opportunities to meet.
In a regular season match, Tatum used a dunk to tie the game, and then blocked Mitchell to complete the defensive win. However, in overtime, it was Mitchell who took away the victory.
Tatum led the Celtics to once again challenge for the championship, and scored a record-breaking 51 points in the tiebreaker. Facing the Heat in the Eastern Conference Finals, Tatum led the Celtics to win three consecutive games from a 0-3 deficit. Unfortunately, he was kicked off in the opening game of G7, preventing him from reaching the Finals again.
Mitchell led the Cavaliers to the playoffs again after 5 years. But what is very surprising is that as the more favored side, Mitchell and the Cavaliers were eliminated by the Knicks 1-4. Mitchell's performance was not stable, and in one game he only scored 11 points on 5-of-18 shots.
From 2017 to 2024, both of them have played in the NBA for 7 seasons.
Tatum has won the Eastern Conference Finals MVP once, the All-Star MVP once, was selected to the All-NBA First Team twice, and was selected to the All-Star Team 5 times;
Mitchell has been selected to the All-NBA Second Team once, and won the Slam Dunk Contest once. Champion, 5-time All-Star.
And during this season, both of them exceeded the 10,000-point career mark at the same time. In their playoff resumes, the two have never missed a game in their careers. Compared with the two of them, the others in the class of 2017 have been left far behind.
When talking about Mitchell, Tatum said: "Mitchell is one of the best players in the league. I have a very close relationship with him and we communicate often. He and I are also players in the same class. It's been a long time coming. Anytime you get a chance to play against one of the best players in the league, you elevate your level as a competitor and you love those moments and those matchups."
When talking about Tatum, Mitchell said: "Tatum and I have been communicating. We often discuss the details of the game, which can help each other become more efficient. Tatum and I have a lot of the same views on the game. He entered the league after his freshman year, and I entered the league after two years at the University of Louisville, so our growth paths are somewhat different, but our professional attitudes are the same. "
It has been 7 years since the two entered the NBA, and now the two have finally faced off in the playoffs.
This showdown is not only about the battle for the Eastern Conference finals, but also the two strongest people in the 2017 class. In a head-to-head matchup, who can lead the team to advance? Can they bring more sparks to the game?
