Celtics coach Brad Stevens was surprised when he was informed that Jayson Tatum fell one vote shy from joining Philadelphia’s Ben Simmons and Utah’s Donovan Mitchell as unanimous choices for the NBA All-Rookie first team.


 


"Somebody made a mistake," Stevens said during a conference call on Tuesday.


 


The 20-year-old forward joined Simmons, Mitchell, Kyle Kuzma of the Lakers and Lauri Markkanen of the Bulls on the first team. [...]

BILL DOYLE The Worcester Telegram & Gazette

Celtics coach Brad Stevens was surprised when he was informed that Jayson Tatum fell one vote shy from joining Philadelphia’s Ben Simmons and Utah’s Donovan Mitchell as unanimous choices for the NBA All-Rookie first team.

 

“Somebody made a mistake,” Stevens said during a conference call on Tuesday.

 

The 20-year-old forward joined Simmons, Mitchell, Kyle Kuzma of the Lakers and Lauri Markkanen of the Bulls on the first team. Mitchell and Simmons received first-place votes from the entire panel of 100 sportswriters and broadcasters, but Tatum received 99.

 

However, Tatum is the only rookie on the first or second team who is still playing in the playoffs and he’s leading the Celtics in postseason scoring with 18 points per game. Tatum and the Celtics will face the Cavaliers in Game 5 of the Eastern Conference finals at 8:30 p.m. on Wednesday at TD Garden.

 

Tatum is the first Celtics player to make the all-rookie first team since Paul Pierce in 1999.

 

“He’s had an unbelievable rookie year,” Stevens said, “and … any awards that come his way, he’s well deserving.”

 

Jaylen Brown made second team last season.

 

Tatum shot 43.4 percent on 3-pointers during the regular season, but he’s shooting just 30.9 percent in the playoffs. In losses in Games 3 and 4 in Cleveland he attempted only two 3-pointers and missed them both.

 

“They’re guarding him,” Stevens said. “They’re making it as tough as possible. They can do some switching. They’re doing a lot of switching. When LeBron [James] guards the ball handler in pick and roll he switches a ton which keeps them out of rotations and allows them to lock in to their guys. They’re good at it. Sometimes you have to take what’s given to you.”

 

The Celtics will need to get off to a better start in Game 5 than they did while losing the last two games to even the conference finals, 2-2. They trailed, 32-17, after one quarter in Game 3 and suffered their most lopsided loss of the entire season, 116-86. Determined to avoid another slow start in Game 4, the Celtics actually led, 10-9, early on, but the Cavs then took control with a 10-0 run and led, 34-18, by the end of the quarter. The Celtics shot only 7 of 26 in the first 12 minutes. They closed within seven in the fourth quarter, but fell, 111-102.

 

“Our last six-plus minutes of the first quarter probably decided the game,” Stevens said.

 

The Cavs led 36-18 early in the second quarter.

 

“And they really hadn’t gone to a lot of their pick and rolls,” Stevens said, “and all the stuff we were talking about after the game. It was just we gave up transition baskets. We weren’t efficient offensively. Obviously we missed some opportunities at the rim and that hurts you, but we’ve got to be better in that early stage.”

 

The Celtics have played much better early on at home against the Cavs. They led, 36-18, after one quarter of a 108-83 victory in Game 1 and they trailed by only 27-23 after one quarter of a 107-94 victory in Game 2.

 

With a victory Wednesday, the Celtics would take a 3-2 lead in the series and improve to 10-0 at home for only the second postseason in franchise history.

 

The 1986 Celtics, who were 40-1 at home during the regular season to set an NBA record, went 10-0 at the Garden during the postseason to win the 16th of the franchise’s 17 championships.

 

Stevens doesn’t like to talk about his team’s performance at home compared to on the road, insisting it needs to play well no matter where the game is, but the Celtics have played far better at the Garden during the playoffs. They’re only 1-6 on the road.

 

Crazy things happened to the Celtics in Game 4 in Cleveland. Kyle Korver blocked Brown not just once, but twice. The Celtics missed three dunks in the first quarter and missed 15 dunks and layups overall, leading to 15 Cleveland points in a game they lost by nine. James scored far too many of his 44 points while being guarded by 6-foot-1 guard Terry Rozier after the Celtics switched on defense. Stevens said he tried a few different things in the second half to keep Rozier away from James.

 

“We didn’t feel like that’s what beat us," Stevens said. "It goes back to the offense and the transition. LeBron’s going to score some on anybody and you have to make it as tough as possible.”

 

Backup guard Shane Larkin hasn’t played since spraining his left shoulder on May 7 against the Sixers, but Stevens said he’s making progress and could return later in the conference finals.

 

“I’d say there’s a chance of that,” Stevens said, “but I doubt it for [Wednesday] night.”