SI:AM | Jayson Tatum Picked the Right Time to Come Alive

Plus, get to know Jets shutdown corner Sauce Gardner.

Good morning, I’m Dan Gartland. We’ll have at least one Game 7 on Sunday. Can the Warriors win tonight to make it two? (A Heat-Knicks Game 7 would be Monday.)

In today’s SI:AM:

☘️ The Celtics stay alive

🥫 The Jets’ defensive standout

🏈 Eight NFL teams with the toughest schedules

🗓️ How the schedule was made

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Philly couldn’t close it out

Through three quarters last night against the Sixers, Celtics star Jayson Tatum was having one of the worst nights of his career. He had scored just three points on 1-of-13 shooting. But Tatum suddenly found his shooting stroke and scored 16 in the fourth as Boston pulled away to avoid elimination and force a Game 7 at home Sunday.

As Tatum missed shot after shot, his teammates picked up the slack and tried to encourage the struggling star, Chris Mannix writes:

In huddles, teammates offered encouragement. [Al] Horford. Marcus Smart. Malcolm Brogdon. They encouraged him to focus on defense. On rebounding. On finding ways to impact the game. “I know it’s not all about scoring,” said Tatum. “I just kept telling myself [that] I’ve got time to make a difference.” Jaylen Brown was particularly vocal.

Keep going

, Brown said.

I believe in you. They can’t guard you. Stop being apprehensive.

In the fourth quarter, Celtics coach Joe Mazzulla pulled Tatum aside and said simply, “I love you.”

“He’s always going to bounce back,” Brogdon said. “He’s resilient. He’s a superstar.”

Smart had 22 points, his most of any game this series and tied for second most this postseason. Horford also struggled offensively for the second game in a row but had 11 rebounds as the Celtics won the battle on the glass, 50–38. The contributions from the rest of the team allowed Boston to hang around until Tatum could figure it out.

For the Sixers, the loss was an enormous missed opportunity. After battling back from a 16-point deficit in the second quarter to take a two point lead heading into the final period, they failed to deliver a crushing blow while Tatum floundered. It might have cost them the series. Playing in front of a raucous home crowd with the opponent’s best player having a terrible night should have been a recipe for an easy win. But Philly just can’t put things together on a consistent basis, evidenced by scoring a measly 13 points in the fourth. James Harden struggled again, going 4-for-16 from the field and missing all six of his three-point attempts. Joel Embiid had 26 points and 10 boards but recorded just one shot attempt over the final five-plus minutes of the game. The Sixers had a great chance to advance to their first conference finals since 2001 and squandered it. Now they’ll have to win Game 7 on the road.

The Suns had no answer for Jokić

One team has already punched its ticket to the conference finals. The Nuggets breezed past the Suns in Game 6 last night to win that series behind a typically excellent performance from Nikola Jokić. He had 32 points on 13-of-18 shooting, with 12 assists and 10 rebounds.

Phoenix’s season will be remembered for what could have been. Would things have gone differently if Kevin Durant hadn’t randomly turned his ankle in warmups and the team had more time to develop chemistry? Would the series against Denver have been more competitive if Chris Paul hadn’t injured his groin and Deandre Ayton hadn’t missed Game 6? Maybe, but Jokić and the Nuggets look pretty close to unbeatable right now.

Jokić was excellent throughout the series, averaging 36.6 points, 12.0 rebounds and 11.4 assists per game. He had four triple doubles, including a 53-point game. Whether it’s the Lakers or the Warriors, whoever the Nuggets play next is going to have a hell of a time trying to stop him.

The best of Sports Illustrated

Jeffery A. Salter/Sports Illustrated

• Conor Orr profiles Jets shutdown corner Sauce Gardner for SI’s June cover story:

“Gardner prefers to go by Sauce, the nickname a peewee football coach gave him when he was 6. Today, Sauce wears diamond grills in his teeth, helps deliver Aaron Rodgers to New York and burns Packers cheeseheads on his YouTube channel.”

• These NFL teams got “screwed” by their schedules, Orr writes.
• Orr also compiles the 10 best games on the calendar.
• How did the Lions get picked to play the Chiefs in the season opener? Albert Breer explains the decision.
• Matt Verderame predicts each AFC team’s record, and Giliberto Manzano does the same for the NFC.
• Anthony Davis’s status looms large for the Lakers ahead of tonight’s Game 6, Chris Herring writes.
• Ticket demand for the Lakers-Warriors series is heating up, with the average ticket price for Friday’s Game 6 topping out over $1,000.

The top five...

… things I saw last night:

5. James Harden’s big dunk in the second quarter. (But it was one of only four made baskets for him.)

4. The Royals’ walk-off squeeze bunt.

3. Jesper Fast’s overtime goal to send the Hurricanes through to the next round.

2. Carolina’s video featuring famous New Jerseyans congratulating them on beating the Devils.

1. The Titans’ schedule release video.

SIQ

Who was the first Black pitcher in AL/NL history to throw a no-hitter? (Today is the anniversary of the achievement.)

• Vida Blue
• Earl Wilson
• Don Wilson
• Sam Jones

Yesterday’s SIQ: On May 11, 1977, with his team mired in a 16-game losing streak, which MLB owner put on a uniform and managed his team from the dugout?

• George Steinbrenner
• Bill Veeck
• Ted Turner
• Ewing Kauffman

Answer: Ted Turner. He had purchased the Braves only a year earlier and wasted no time taking a hands-on approach.

Atlanta went 70–92 in Turner’s first year in charge and finished last in the six-team NL West. After a decent 8–5 start to the 1977 season, things began going downhill in a major way. After losing both ends of a doubleheader in Pittsburgh to stretch their losing streak to 16 games, Turner had seen enough. He told manager Dave Bristol to take 10 days off. Turner himself would be managing the team while Bristol was away.

“I’ve just been fired for two weeks,” Braves infielder Darrel Chaney recalled Bristol telling him, as quoted in a 2013 ESPN article. “I said, ‘What?’ ‘I’ve been fired for two weeks, come on down here [to the hotel lobby].’ I went down and he told me, ‘Turner wants to find out what’s wrong with the club so he’s letting me go. I’ll be back in two weeks.’”

The sight of Turner in uniform was farcical, players said. Reliever Buzz Capra said the owner wore his stirrups backward. Phil Niekro, the scheduled starter for the game, jokingly asked Turner where he was going to have him hit in the lineup. To Niekro’s surprise, Turner told him he’d let him choose his spot in the lineup.

“I don’t think that’s going to work, Ted,” Niekro replied. “Put me in that ninth spot.”

Third base coach Vern Benson and bullpen coach Chris Cannizzaro had to explain to Turner what he was and wasn’t allowed to do as a manager, but the game didn’t go as disastrously as you might expect. The Braves lost, but by a score of only 2–1. Their losing streak reached 17 games.

Turner’s plan to manage the team during Bristol’s 10-day leave of absence hit a snag, though. He received a call from National League president Chub Feeney, who informed him of Rule 20-E, which prohibits any person from managing a team in which they own stock. Benson managed the series finale in Pittsburgh, which Atlanta won to snap its weeks-long streak, but when the Braves returned home, Turner appealed Feeney’s ruling to MLB commissioner Bowie Kuhn. As Kent Hannon detailed in Sports Illustrated at the time, Turner took the field in uniform before the first game of the Braves’ homestand, taking batting practice and fielding groundballs at second base.

The spectacle of Turner managing the team again drew 20,000 fans to Atlanta–Fulton County Stadium. But before the game started, Turner received a telegram from Kuhn that was also read aloud by the stadium’s public address announcer: “Given Mr. Turner's lack of familiarity with game operations, I do not think it is in the best interest of baseball for Mr. Turner to serve in the requested capacity.”

Turner quickly telephoned Kuhn, whom he refers to as “the Big Chief,” and asked, “How am I supposed to get the experience?”

“In the stands, like the other owners,” said the Big Chief. “Why can’t you be like everybody else?”

“Because I’m in last place,” Turner said.

The Braves never got out of last place. They lost that game against the Cardinals to drop to 9–23. Bristol was reinstated as manager the following day, and Atlanta went 52–78 the rest of the way.