Ranking the 15 best performances in the NBA this season

2. Jayson Tatum arrives against the Clippers (02/13/20)

Jayson Tatum had been playing like an All-Star all season long — hence his first selection this season — but there’s a difference between star and superstardom, a gap the third-year forward crossed for good when the Celtics took on the Clippers in February.

In what ended up a win for Boston, Tatum was the main catalyst, scoring 39 points on 14-of-23 from the field and 5-of-10 from beyond the arc, reaching into a deep bag of moves to get whatever he wanted.

It didn’t matter that perhaps the league’s top perimeter stopper in Kawhi Leonard stood in his way more than any other defender — Paul George exited after just 14 minutes.

Tatum made all three of his looks with the Finals MVP trying to stop him and accepted the challenge of doing the same at the other end.

In the 24.6 partial possessions Tatum guarded Kawhi, Leonard shot just 4-of-12 with two turnovers.

Tatum had scored more points in games before this one. Rarely, though, were the buckets dropped in the assertive go-to mentality he displayed and certainly never against a team of LA’s caliber on national television.

In the seven games prior, Tatum averaged 25.6 points per game. In the nine games after, that went up to 29.9 a night.

There’s no definitive pinpointing of Tatum’s ascension, but this outing seems like a pretty good indication of the breakout for a player always known to have the potential to do so.