The Celtics are trying to downplay any notion that they are truly struggling right now. After scraping by to beat New Orleans, Jayson Tatum and head coach Joe Mazzulla had some things to say about the current state of the team.

Star Boston Celtics forward Jayson Tatum is still in the race to win the NBA's 2025 Most Valuable Player award, but he's been slipping of late, according to at least some league analysts. Among them is Bleacher Report's Dan Favale,

Instead of overvaluing individual accolades and pure scoring, the St. Louis native has learned how to give the game what it needs .

Tatum was initially called for the technical foul for a hand slap — one of Tatum’s regular reactions — after being whistled for a foul.

Jayson Tatum is expected to take the court on Tuesday against Toronto as his name does not appear on the injury report.

Is star Boston Celtics forward Jayson Tatum the softest star to play for his ball club? We hardly even want to give it any more life given how dumb of a take it is, but given it is making the rounds in NBA media circles (never mind Boston Celtics ones),

Mazzulla went on to strongly defend his star player in the same radio interview, calling Tatum “one of the best Celtics of all time” while stressing the need to ignore outsiders’ opinions.