Boston Celtics: Jayson Tatum’s top five games this season
No. 4: 3/4 @ CLE
- 32 Pts (11-of-24 shooting)
- 9 Reb
- 6 Ast
- 1 Blk
- 2 Stl
- Win (112-106)
For people that go off box scores, this game isn’t extremely crazy. If anything, they may argue the last two games mentioned are better than this one.
However, the background info needed to rationalize the placement of this game is necessary.
The night before this contest, the Boston Celtics lost a tough game against the Brooklyn Nets.
In that contest, the team lost Jaylen Brown and Gordon Hayward to injury. Kemba Walker was also planning on sitting out the following game due to his knee injury. Tatum also sat out the Nets game with an illness.
Therefore, the Celtics were lacking players to suit up the next night against the Cleveland Cavaliers. Jayson Tatum was almost forced to play, and he and Daniel Theis were the only typical starters to see the court.
Offensively, Tatum handled the ball every time he was on the court. He shared the point guard duties with Marcus Smart for the most part.
Tatum and Smart combined for 50 in the game, with Tatum scoring a team-high 32 points.
His shot was on early in the game, and he consistently made the right play, giving the ball up to the right people for quality shots whenever he could not create for himself.
This game was unique in the sense that it was the first one where Tatum saw traps come his way, and he was forced to ask fast.
Luckily for him, Semi Ojeleye became his sidekick in this one, providing 22 points to help assist Tatum in securing the win for Boston.
Tatum was essentially tasked with carrying the offense in this one, and he did so very well. He carried the team to the win and lead the team in points and assists, all while playing a team-high 40 minutes just one day after being too sick to play.