BOSTON – As Jayson Tatum was going through pregame layup lines Wednesday night at TD Garden, birthday boy Grant Williams walked up to him and made a bold prediction. The now-24-year-old forward had a feeling in his gut (besides the birthday cake settling in) that Tatum was about to go off for his first 50-point game of the season against the Miami Heat.
“I just kept that in the back of my mind as I kept shooting throughout the game,” Tatum said later that night.
Finishing with a season-high 49 points, he just about Grant-ed Williams’ wish.
Even though he came up short of the 50-piece Williams had been hoping for, Tatum still delivered a few presents: two NBA records and more importantly, a 134-121 win in a rematch of last season’s Eastern Conference Finals.
Both records Tatum established late in the fourth quarter as he was helping the C’s hold off Miami's comeback attempt.
With 3:42 remaining, the All-NBA forward knocked down his 900th career 3-pointer to give Boston a 126-117 lead. Adding further significance to the milestone, it made him the youngest player in league history to reach that mark and the first to do it before turning 25 years old.
At 24 years, 272 days old, Tatum smashed Devin Booker's previously-owned record which Booker set at 25 years, 90 days old.
Less than a minute and a half later, Tatum penned his name into the record books once again. At the 2:21 mark, he knocked down his eighth 3-pointer to give him 47 points on the night. In the process, he became the first player in NBA history to have multiple games of recording at least 45 points, eight 3-point makes, and 10 rebounds (he finished with 11 boards).
Tatum previously accomplished the same feat in a 51-point effort against Washington on Jan. 23, 2022, in which he also sunk nine 3-pointers and grabbed 10 rebounds.
Only six others have accomplished the feat even once.
Teammate Derrick White said that when Tatum gets in a zone like that, “it’s just fun,” to witness. “You just try to help him as much as you can, but he’s special and he does a lot of great things for us on both ends.”
Interim head coach Joe Mazzulla elaborated on Tatum’s versatility, noting how impressive he’s become at managing the game in all areas.
"I think he manages the team concept by continuing to play the right way,” said Mazzulla. “He’s getting catch-and-shoot shots, he's screening, he's running the floor in transition, he's getting to the free throw line. The fact that his game is versatile, a lot of the stuff he does opens plays for others as well. There are about 15 or 18 points a game he's getting just because of what he's doing without the ball. I think it's just as much about that. How do you play because you're a great player or how do you make the people around you better?”
Tatum is without a doubt making the people around him better, and the Celtics have an NBA-best 18-4 record to show for it. With JT spearheading their league-leading offense, owning the second-highest scoring average in the league at 31.6 points per game, Malcolm Brogdon believes he’s the early MVP favorite.
“To play the way he did last year, to be in the MVP race at times last year, and then to take the jump he's taken this year has been pretty incredible to watch,” said Brogdon, who logged his second straight 21-point performance. “Undoubtedly, he should be leading the MVP race right now. I mean, he's playing at a superstar level.”
We saw that superstar in full force Wednesday night, and he was hotter than the candles on Williams’ birthday cake.
As for the 50-piece Tatum still owes Williams?
“I told him happy birthday after the game, but I’ve scored 50 a couple of times. So I’ll do it again one day.”