Jayson Tatum ascends into superstardom with big night against Brooklyn
Coaches always take the measured route.
"We had a lot of guys step up around Jayson being special."
Those were the words of Boston Celtics coach Brad Stevens, whose team kept its first-round series against the Brooklyn Nets on schedule with a Game 3 home win on Friday.
But it wasn't the win that made headlines – it was that "special" player.
Jayson Tatum, the Celtics' young All-Star forward, crossed over into new territory on Friday when he scored 50 points in powering Boston to a make-or-break, 125-119 win over the Nets in Game 3.
In the process, he broke a number of Celtics records, but more importantly, he might have established himself as the game's next superstar scorer, in the same vein as Kevin Durant, James Harden and Kyrie Irving, all of which he stared down and fought off on Friday.
After Tatum's performance, not even the measured coach that is Stevens could resist praising his young superstar.
"He's so advanced for 23 years old. I've said the word ‘special.' I don't say that very often obviously. He just has a unique ability to score the ball.
"He was super tonight. He's special."
The 50 points scored by Tatum were his playoff career-high, with 40 of them coming through the first three quarters. And in the end, each bucket by Tatum was needed considering Harden put up 41 and Durant finished the night with 39.
After the game, Durant – whose playoff career-high is also 50 – said that Brooklyn didn't play poor individual defense on Tatum. Instead, he believes Tatum just got rolling.
"I feel like they made shots tonight, especially Tatum. He hit some tough ones over us tonight. I don't think he got anything easy, but for a scorer like that, once you start to see the ball go into the rim, … it just pushed their team to another level."
Tatum was indeed on a roll in all facets of the game on Friday.
He connected on 16 of his 30 shot attempts, including 5-for-11 from 3. He made 13 of 15 free throws, handed out seven assists and grabbed six rebounds, all in 41 minutes of work.
After the game, Tatum was modest in reviewing his record-setting evening.
"It was just one of those nights. … We were trying to protect home court and trying to get a win at all costs. And sometimes, nights like these are needed."
Despite last season representing Tatum's first All-Star season, this year has been his breakout one.
Not only did he score 50 on Friday, he scored half a hundred against the Washington Wizards in the Celtics' lone play-in game to qualify for the postseason on May 18.
Tatum also put together games of 60 and 53 during the regular season, and averaged career-highs In points (26.4), rebounds (7.4) and assists (4.3).
In other words, superstardom has arrived for Tatum.
Throughout Friday night and Saturday morning, the adulation for Tatum was steady and profuse.
As for Tatum?
He's just looking forward to Sunday's Game 4, when TD Garden will return to full capacity.
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