BOSTON – Before the NBA season was put on hold in March, Jayson Tatum was that rising star whose brilliance began to shine brighter than most players in the league.
And there was a perennial teammate and All-Star Kemba Walker, who was not so shocking courtesy of a sore left knee that he and the Celtics remain cautiously optimistic and will be strong enough in the coming weeks now that the season of The NBA has resumed at Orlando Fla.
Because Tatum has been a good player, pairing him with a healthy Walker in the playoff gives the Celtics the best shot at offering the kind of memorable postseason career that Celtics fans have been clamoring for.
But first things first.
Walker, who was involved in limited capacity in team practice Thursday, addressed his knee problems for the first time since the Celtics arrived in Orlando, Florida, as part of the NBA season restart.
“I’ll be right back. The plan is to take things fairly slowly,” Walker said. “That really is it. I feel really good now. But we don’t want, I don’t want, to have setbacks; just taking it easy. But I will be back in time when things get real for sure.
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Being realistic by the standards of Walker or anyone involved with the Celtics organization means the playoffs.
That’s a place that Walker is familiar with … as a spectator.
Walker spent his previous eight seasons in Charlotte, where the Hornets went to the postseason twice and ended up losing both playoff series.
Of course, the Celtics’ $ 141 million, four-year deal for Walker was a great incentive for him to sign with the team when he became a free agent last summer.
But more than that, Walker would finally have a chance to be part of a team that wasn’t good enough to make it to the postseason.
They are good enough to win it all.
And that enhanced optimism is due in part to the meteoric rise we’ve all seen in Jayson Tatum’s game.
An All-Star for the first time this season, Tatum, 22, has taken his game to another level since halftime, a level that gives the Celtics Nation every reason in the world to believe Boston will be on the hunt for a championship this season and many seasons to come.
Since the break Tatum has averaged 29.9 points, 7.9 rebounds and 3.1 assists while shooting 47.2 percent from the field and 46.8 percent in 3.
That’s the kind of stats that show just how powerful Tatum can be when it comes to scoring, and they tend to overshadow the 6-foot-9-inch striker’s defensive prowess.
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But any Boston championship pursuit will have to involve Walker; specifically a healthy walker.
Until this season, that was never a problem with the 30-year-old who has been among the NBA’s most enduring players for years.
In the four seasons prior to his arrival in Boston, Walker missed a total of four games.
To put this injury-ridden season in perspective for Walker, he has missed six games since the All-Star break in early February and 14 for the season.
“This is not normal for me to be like this,” Walker said. “But the smart way of doing things … I definitely want to be at my best in the playoffs.”
Because the Walker we’ve seen after the All-Star break is a mere shell of the dynamic scorer we saw in Charlotte and before the break here in Boston.
In the four games Walker played since the All-Star break, he averaged just 14.8 points, 4.3 assists and 3.8 rebounds while shooting 30.5 and 22.2 percent from the field and three-point range, respectively.
Before the break, Walker averaged 21.8 points on 42.9 percent shooting from the field and 38.8 percent from a 3-point range while catching 4.1 rebounds and dishing 5.0 assists per game.
That was Walker playing much closer to the four-time All-Star we’ve seen flourish in the NBA after taking the UConn Huskies to an unlikely NCAA title race in 2011.
A relatively healthy Walker paired with Tatum picking up where he left off when the season was suspended on March 12, creates a lethal 1-2 hit for Boston in its quest to bring Banner 18 home.
“We can be pretty tough for sure,” Walker said. “Since he (Tatum) has been killing him the way he has been, I really haven’t been able to help as I really wanted. I’m definitely looking forward to coming back and having an impact and being better than I was before the season ended. “
