Jayson Tatum Rejects Theory After Not Playing In Olympics Opener
Three Celtics are representing Boston at the Paris Olympics, but only two of them saw the floor Sunday when Team USA opened group-stage play.
Jayson Tatum was one of two players (Tyrese Haliburton the other) who didn’t log a single minute in the Americans’ 110-84 win over Serbia. The DNP arrived after Tatum played at least 14 minutes in all five of Team USA’s showcase contests before it traveled to France. The star forward, who won his first NBA championship last month, even started three of those games.
There was a widely believed theory that Tatum didn’t play Sunday due to illness, as a sickness started to make its way around Steve Kerr’s group over the weekend. But after the win over Nikola Jokic and company, Tatum confirmed to The Boston Globe’s Gary Washburn that he was “good” and not under the weather.
As for the Celtics who did play Sunday, Jrue Holiday started and logged the third-most minutes (23:43) and points (15) on Team USA. Derrick White scored two points to go along with two steals, a rebound, one assist and a block in 15:40 off the bench.
The Americans will resume group-stage play Wednesday when they match up with South Sudan. Tipoff is scheduled for 3 p.m. ET.