Jayson Tatum celebrates the play in Game 7 against Philadelphia (from the NBA website)
Jayson Tatum has proven: That's how real winners react. While Joel Embiid, James Harden and Doc Rivers wrote another bleak chapter in their playoff history, while on a night justifying the loser label, the Boston star showed them how to do it right. After one of the worst games of his career in Game 6, Tatum delivered arguably the best game of his career, making history.
Tatum had 51 points, the most ever in an NBA Game 7, and he did it in style and lethality. He finished the game 17-of-28 from the field, added 13 rebounds and 5 assists, becoming only the fifth player in NBA history to reach 50 points, 10 rebounds and 5 assists in a playoff game. It was Tatum's fifth playoff game with at least 50 points, 5 rebounds and 5 assists — an all-time record for a Celtics player, well above legends like Larry Bird (who recorded two such games), John Havlicek (1) or Paul Pierce (1).
When you dive even deeper into the numbers, you discover just how extraordinary Tatum's play was, even beyond the dry stats. Tatum showed tremendous responsibility and composure by finishing the game without losing a single ball, making him the first player ever to score more than 50 points and 0 turnovers in a playoff game; No basket came easy, scoring all 51 of his points on a Celtics offense against five different guards. Facing Joel Embiid, the league's MVP, he scored 17 points. Overall, Tatum accounted for 62 points or assists. Embiid and Harden, by comparison, combined for 44 points.
"After Game 6, Jason heard all the criticism, he heard all the talk about him. Tonight he just responded," Marcus Smart explained, and Tatum explained: "It may sound crazy, but before Game 6 I was too focused, too tense. I thought too much about what I should do, how much I should score... And today I was just myself. Before the game I was calm, laughing with my friends, smiling. And when I'm having fun, I play a lot better."
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After Game 6, in which he scored 5 points in the first three quarters before coming to his senses and deciding the game in favor of the Celtics in the final quarter, there were quite a few questions about Tatum and his ability to sweep the Celtics to a championship – the goal the team ultimately set for itself. Tatum said after the game on Tuesday: "In all modesty, I think I'm one of the best players in the world." Tonight he proved it, and even a veteran battle fox like Doc Rivers admitted he hadn't seen many more impressive plays than this one in the playoffs.
"I saw one similar performance by a single player in the playoffs, and it happened here in Boston. And today everyone is talking about this game as the biggest game of LeBron James' career," Rivers said, referring to James' big play in Game 6 of the 2012 Eastern Conference Finals, in which he poured in 45 points against Boston, which at the time was coached by Doc Rivers. "Jason was truly unbelievable today. It was a tremendous performance."
How mighty? According to Marcus Smart, it was "like watching a movie in a movie, but in a really good, high-quality movie."
"You sit back, eat your popcorn and just watch with pleasure," Smart explains.
Memorable. Tatum (Photo by Getty Images, Adam Glanzman)
Jayson Tatum, Boston Celtics (Photo by Getty Images, Adam Glanzman)
Now Boston is reaching the Eastern Conference Finals for the second straight season, and fifth in the last seven years. In the finals, she will meet a familiar opponent she has met three times in the last four years, Miami. After once again erasing a 3-2 deficit in the series — this is the seventh time the Celtics have ever done so, the most in league history — she knows she has both the big star to deal with Jimmy Butler, the character to get by with the Heat's famed toughness, and the right chemistry to move on.
"We stayed together all this time, we stayed focused every second," Al Horford boasted. "Philly is a very good team, and this series could easily have been the Eastern Conference Finals, or even the NBA Finals. They're that good, and you have to give them credit. But I'm very encouraged by the character we've shown in this series."
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