In the first battle with the piston, Tatum cut 43 points and 10 rebounds. Considering the opponent’s grade, Tatum’s data seems to be not as good as Stephen Curry’s 40 points and 5 assists yesterday. However, if the background of back-to-back second, Jay Brown’s absence, and Tatum’s nearly plastic footpad left ankle injury were added, Tatum’s data would be crazy.

This season, Tatum made a hot start after changing the problem of slow heat. The average game was 32.3 points plus 7.2 rebounds and 4.1 assists. The field goal percentage hit rate was as high as 50%, and the three-point hit rate was%, he entered the MVP battle with high attendance rate, gorgeous data and outstanding record.

There are many changes behind Tatum’s crazy start. After the baptism of the finals, Tatum’s mentality was sublimated, weaknesses were improved, and the style of play was adjusted. Once transformation occurs, it is like a huge wave rising from the bottom of the sea.

Last season, Tatum’s opening performance was extremely poor. In 6 games in October, Tatum field goal percentage 40%, and hit 27.3% in three points. In the 15 games in November, Tatum field goal percentage 39.3 percent and hit 33.6 percent in three points. Physical fitness and muscle enhancement have great influence on Tatum’s performance.

After the trip to Tokyo Olympic Games in 2021, Tatum realized the importance of confrontation. He further increased his muscles with the help of trainer hanlun. Although Tatum refused to reveal how much weight he gained, when he appeared in the training camp, his body shape changed visible to the naked eye.

Originally, Tatum increased muscle to improve the confrontation, but increased muscle affected his offensive feel, and Curry also encountered this problem last season. In addition, after the Tokyo Olympics, its physical fitness turned on the red light, and Tatum was completely lost at the beginning of the season. Tatum has improved from December, but the performance of Tatum, who played warriors in the finals, is not ideal. The problem of too low efficiency after the breakthrough is too obvious, wu ducurno also complained that his disciples always avoided beating when breaking through.

During the off-season this year, Tatum flew to Los Angeles and hanlun for special training after resting for half a month. They studied the video of last season and established the training focus: improving the breakthrough quality after the confrontation, in the vicinity of RIM, more use of strength to win the opponent or use throwing to end the attack, retrieve the accuracy of low-level attack and China Investment Center. Tatum had seven weeks of special training, during which he also practiced with stars such as Zac Lavin and Kevin Durant.

“Excellent players can always find a way to continue to improve their strength,” hanlun said. “Tatum’s ability to finish under the basket is not good, then we will train against this weakness. His breakthrough ability after confrontation is not good, then we will focus on practicing this. In addition, we have to help him find the target of low attack and middle distance shooting, because this is his dessert position.”

In last season’s finals, Tatum’s hit rate after the breakthrough was less than 35%, which was a huge decline compared with in the regular season. During the off-season, hanlun helped Tatum Polish new breakthrough skills. He asked Tatum to make better use of his hips and squeeze out defenders to create more space. This breakthrough requires Tatum to make more use of physical confrontation, which not only improves Tatum’s end efficiency, but also increases the number of fouls.

The changes are obvious:

Tatum hit 79.7 percent restricted area near the basket, up from 68 percent last season.

Tatum’s hit rate was 47%, up from last season.

Tatum averaged the fifth place in the 9 penalty league and the 15th place in the 6.2th league last season.

In principle, with Tatum’s constantly advanced ability to hold the ball, when he solved the problems of breakthrough confrontation and the end of the basket, he should have increased the play of holding the ball to attack. However, Tatum started subtraction in the opposite way. He reduced the proportion of strong attack and increased the proportion of no ball.

Observing the mode of play of Tatum, we can see that its off the ball, the number of times of getting rid of defense and putting up cover with cover increases. The most intuitive manifestation of this change is that Tatum’s goal assist rate increases, last season, his goal assist rate was only 47.3%, but this season soared to 57.8%. For example, in today’s World War I with the piston, Tatum scored 14 goals, and 9 of them scored with the help of teammates.

Other data also support this kind of sensory impression: The number of low-level attacks in Tatum hundred rounds dropped to 1.6, and the number of blocking and dismantling attacks dropped to 5.9. At the same time, the number of attacks in Tatum hundred rounds increased to 1.5, the number of empty cuts increased to 2.2, and the number of attacks in receive the ball without ball cover increased to 2.7, the last three data are the highest records since Tatum entered the line.

Tatum explained the change: “In the playoffs, it is very difficult to score. Opponents will focus their defensive attention on you. At this time, you have to play no-ball attack more. If the opponent’s defensive attention is focused on the ball holder, you may use the opponent’s defensive chaos to get a chance to get a vacancy.”

The space environment of the Celtics also supports Tatum to increase the ball-free attack. Robert Williams III is in the recovery period of knee injury. The Celtics have a lot of time to play “five-way tactics”. Smart’s organizational capacity has been improved, Brogden joined, and Celts have no shortage of organizers. Tatum has 68 percent of the time to play power forward this season, and 9 percent of the time to appear in No. 5. His cooperation with smart as a shield has become more and more tacit, A variety of changes have emerged between the two people, such as blocking, removing, and cutting. Outside shooter surround also gives Tatum enough space to attack the basket and perimeter shot.

Personal progress and environmental changes have shaped a brand new Tatum.

Last season, Tatum scores, rebounds and assists were all career highs. He was selected into the best team. However, due to the slow heat at the beginning of the season, he only ranked 6th in the MVP vote. Before the start of this season, Tatum once said: “to compete for MVP, I can’t wait until one month to become the best player. I have to make a better start and perform at the ruling level every night, this is the best performance that the best players should take out.”

Now, Tatum has fulfilled his promise and taken the first step towards fighting for MVP.