It happened in the first 30 seconds of the seventh and final game of the Eastern Conference Finals between the Miami Heat and Boston Celtics, but it surely set the tone for what was to come. As he drove inside the paint for a layup, Celtics all-star forward Jayson Tatum injured his ankle and was visibly in pain, but remained in the game, playing 42 minutes. He concluded the contest with 14 points, 11 rebounds, four assists and one steal on 5-for-13 shooting from the field, and stated after the game that he felt like a shell of himself throughout the night as the Celtics were eliminated by the Heat.
Had it not been for the shrewd observations of the ESPN Radio commentary team of Dave Pasch and Doris Burke, the impact the impediment was having on Tatum might have gone unnoticed. In an appearance on The Rich Eisen Show, Doris Burke discussed what it was like to cover the series and spoke about the Heat as the team gears up for an NBA Finals appearance. After answering a question, she asked show host Rich Eisen what he noticed about Tatum, which led him to divulge that he was listening to their broadcast on the radio and commended their performance.
“The first inkling I had was when you were pointing [it] out – because again I was listening to you on Monday night – when Tatum came out with four minutes to go in the first quarter,” Eisen said. “And you’re like, ‘What’s up with that? This is Game 7.’ That means there’s something significant, and you and Dave Pasch caught wind of that right away and I thought, ‘This has all the makings.’ Tatum hurt; bad three-point shooting and turnover problems.”
Tatum has played the entirety of the first quarter in games throughout the postseason, indicating to Pasch and Burke that something was amiss when he was taken out after eight minutes of play. They communicated as such on the broadcast, making listeners like Eisen aware of the significance of the moment, and effectively fulfilled their obligations as game announcers.
“Dave, to his credit, was all over it,” Burke said of Pasch. “He kept hitting it throughout the course of the broadcast.”
