As of today, a quarter of this year's playoff journey has ended.
What is completely different from previous years is that James, Curry, Durant, Harden and other superstars have all ended their journeys early. The tide of the times cannot be stopped, and NBA updates have never seemed so intuitive and violent as this year. The new generation of stars gradually occupying the stage is an irreversible trend.
In fact, during this year's All-Star Game, James, Curry, Durant and others were already asked about who is the future face of the league during interviews. The nominated rising stars include Alexander, Doncic, Edwards and others.
These juniors have really shined this season.
Alexander led the Thunder to become the biggest dark horse this season, and swept the Pelicans 4-0 in the first round. He is one of the candidates for the league mvp this season.
Doncic won the league's scoring title in the regular season, and led the Mavericks to overturn the Clippers , which had the Big Four, 4-2 in the first round. He is reaching his peak.
Edwards is even called the contemporary Jordan. Just like in today's first game of the Western Conference semifinals, he scored a playoff-high 43 points and led the Timberwolves to defeat the defending champion Nuggets away from home.
However, whenever the topic of the so-called successor or future appearance is discussed, one person's name is always ignored.
In fact, he has just celebrated his 26th birthday. He is only a few months older than Alexander and Doncic, but he has led the team to the playoffs for many years. He is Tatum.
Not long ago, the American media compiled a set of data. Since Tatum entered the league, Tatum's total score in the playoffs is 2,345 points, a total of 99 games played, and a total of 56 wins. These three numbers are all No. 1 in the league, even if he is better than Jokic, Curry, Antetokounmpo and others, they cannot compare with him.
Not to mention Doncic, who has only passed the first round twice so far, Alexander and Edwards, who have just won the series this season.
When we cheered for Doncic to defeat the Clippers;
As everyone knows, Tatum has eliminated the defending champion twice in the playoffs, defeating Raptors in 2020, and defeating in 2022 Bucks .
When we scored 43 points for Edwards, we called him contemporary Jordan;
As everyone knows, Tatum has scored 50+ twice in the playoffs, one of which blocked the Nets three times by himself. The giants also set a historical tie-break record with 51 points.
When we praise Alexander for sweeping the Pelicans;
As everyone knows, Tatum has been accustomed to sweeping in his career. He has already achieved similar achievements in the second grade and swept Emby in the third grade. Germany, and then swept the Nets with Durant and Irving in the fifth grade.
After the Gentlemen swept the Heat earlier this week, Tatum's total playoff score reached 2,345 points. What is the concept of
2345 points? Among all active stars, Tatum ranks 11th, behind James, Durant, Curry, Harden, Thompson, Paul, Leonard, Westbrook, Butler, and George. Considering that Tatum's playoff journey this season is still continuing, it is almost certain that he will surpass George, Butler and others this season.
Including Antetokounmpo, Jokic, Irving, Lillard, Davis, Embiid and others are far behind him, and these people are all several years older than him.
Edwards, Doncic, and Alexander, who are always compared, can barely reach half of Tatum's total points.
If it is not intuitive like the above, then please look at the specific data:
70 points, Mr. Booker scored a total of 1,315 points (167th in history);
Dongcic scored a total of 1,090 points (216th in history);
Mitchell, another sweetheart in the same class, scored a total of 1,383 points (150th in history);
New York City Mayor Trae Young scored a total of 713 points (348th in history);
Memphis gun king Morant scored a total of 518 points (482nd in history);
Edwards, the new king of Minnesota Wolves, scored a total of 476 points (586th in history);
Alexander, the new king of Thunder, scored 305 points (765th in history);
As for Fox, Ingram and others , no need to list them.
How does it compare with historical superstars?
Iverson scored a total of 2,111 points (55th in history);
two-time regular season mvp Nash scored 2,072 points (61st in history);
Anthony, who ranked 9th in regular season scoring in history, scored 1,914 points. (71st in history);
Robertson, the first-generation triple-double king, scored 1,910 points in his career (73rd in history).
As for Tatum, he has just celebrated his 26th birthday two months ago.
As shown in the data listed above, Tatum's total points, total wins, and total appearances ranked first in the league during the same period.
These are not accidental, nor can they be explained by the saying that the team's lineup is good.
For example, the Celtics lost Irving and Hayward in the 2017-18 season, and no one was optimistic about how far they could go in the playoffs. In his rookie season, Tatum did not believe in evil. He averaged 18.5 points per game and became the team's scoring leader in the playoffs that season. He led the team to eliminate the Bucks and 76 people in a row, and played seven games with James' Cavaliers, only one difference behind. One point would break Kareem Abdul-Jabbar's rookie playoff scoring record.
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.
Another example is the 2020-21 season. When Jaylen Brown was reimbursed 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.
In the past two seasons, Tatum has repeatedly played high-scoring games in the playoffs. For example, he scored 46 points against the Bucks in the G6 semifinals last year, and he scored a record 51 points in the tiebreaker in this year's semifinals. If it weren't for the sprained foot after the tiebreaker of last year's Eastern Conference Finals, Tatum would have likely stood on the finals stage for the second time, and would have even created a 0-3 to 4-3 unprecedented in NBA history. Reversal of miracles.
listed Tatum's achievements in the playoffs.
is because compared to the regular season, where data is increasingly exploding and depreciating, the playoffs have more reference value. At the same time, the playoffs are the best stage to test new stars. Otherwise, if you are only a regular season star, then you do not have any qualifications to be called Giankudu's successor. What you need to know is that these three people have a combined total of 10 A championship.
We have seen Tatum too many times what Doncic, Edwards, and Alexander did in the playoffs.
In the 2021-22 season the year before last, the Celtics only ranked 13th in the league in terms of winning odds before the start of the game. They were also ranked fifth from the bottom in the Eastern Conference in the middle of the season. Tatum led the team to counterattack and win the championship. The regular season ranked second in the Eastern Conference, and continuously avenged the Nets, Bucks, and Heat to win the Eastern Conference championship. Tatum won the conference finals MVP that other rising stars had not yet won, but ultimately fell on the finals stage.
In last year's 2022-23 season, Tatum led the Celtics to make a comeback. They first defeated the Hawks in the playoffs, and then eliminated Harden and Embiid with Tatum's 51 points. On the stage of the Eastern Conference Finals, Tatum led the Celtics to pull the Heat to 3-3 after falling behind 0-3. Unfortunately, Tatum lost his foot in the opening game of G7 and missed the opportunity to advance to the finals again.
Tatum has become more mature this season. He knows what he needs to pay and sacrifice for the championship. In the words of Green Army coach Mazzura: "Tatum clearly understands what playoff basketball is. He is using different ways to affect the outcome of the game, just like he did on the defensive end in the first round."
Mazzura said It’s true. What you need to know is that Tatum only took 15.4 shots per game in the first round, which was not only far lower than the regular season and last year’s playoffs, but even nearly 3 shots less than another star on the team, Jaylen Brown. . But at the same time, Tatum averaged 10.4 rebounds, ninth in the league, and his average plus-minus per game ranked second in the league behind the Thunder's Jaylen Williams.
Now the Celtics are actively preparing for the game, and they are still waiting for their semi-final opponents to be announced. No matter who he faces, Tatum, who has more experience in the playoffs, is ready.
No matter how amazing the scoring performance of other rising stars in the playoffs is, or how arrogant they say. As long as Tatum can lead the team to a championship, he will surpass others in the competition for rising stars.
By then, the topic of who is Zhankudu’s successor or the new face of the league will probably come to an end.
follows Tencent News Sports’ basketball quarrel and debate program "Three-person Basketball Question" at 7 pm on May 6th. Let’s take a look at who Xu Jingyu, Shu Hai, and Kuangyan think the future faces of the league are?
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