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BOSTON – When it comes to games that Jayson Tatum lives for, Sunday afternoon’s matchup against the Brooklyn Nets checked off all the boxes.
A nationally televised stage to play on – check.
A head-to-head showdown against one of the NBA’s all-time greats in Kevin Durant – check.
A nail-biting battle from start to finish – check.
On that stage, Tatum was far and away the best player. He outdueled Durant 54-37 in the scoring column. And he helped Boston eek out a heart-palpitating, 126-120 victory at TD Garden, giving the Celtics a three-game sweep of their homestand.
Sitting next to Tatum at a podium after the game, Jaylen Brown said it best: “Today, this man to the left was unstoppable.”
Tatum became progressively more unstoppable as the afternoon wore one, as he tallied nine points in the first quarter, 11 in the second frame, 16 in the third quarter, and 18 in the final frame. He finished the day with shooting clips of 16-of-30 from the field, 8-of-15 from 3-point range, and 14-of-17 from the free-throw line, while also grabbing five rebounds and handing out three assists.
“When you kind of get in that zone, the basket just seems to be a little bit bigger,” Tatum said. “You feel just a little bit better about yourself getting to your spots. Ultimately, was just trying to make the right play.”
Durant was in a heck of a zone himself, knocking down 12-of-21 from the field and dishing out eight assists. He also hit a career milestone, becoming the second-youngest player in league history to reach 25,000 points behind LeBron James.
However, not even one of the greatest scorers of all time could get the upper hand on JT.
“He’s a shot-maker,” Durant said of Tatum. “He got some free throws there in the fourth and then he made some tough 3-point shots over the top of us. He’s an elite shot-maker and he’s been knocking them down, playing with confidence lately.”
There hasn’t been a more confident, high-volume scorer in the league over the past year, and Tatum’s numbers back that up. Including the postseason, he’s now logged six 50-point games in the past year, while no other player has logged more than two.
Two of those 50-pieces have come against Durant and the Nets, as Tatum also hit the half-century mark in Game 3 of their first-round playoff matchup last May.
Over their past five meetings, Tatum has outscored Durant 191-163, which equals out to 38.2 points per game vs. 32.6 PPG.
Although Tatum’s scoring ability is nothing new, his improved ability to make the right decisions has stood out to his teammates.
“He’s been doing this his whole life, man, ever since he got here,” said Marcus Smart, who tallied 14 points and nine assists on his 28th birthday. “He’s reading the game the right way. He’s letting the game come to him, and he’s picking his spots and he’s doing what he does. So for us and for Jayson, his growth is very, very important, and he’s been showing not just himself, but also us and everybody in the world that he knows what he wants to work on, and he’s doing it. He’s playing the game a lot smarter, and it’s showing.”
Tatum showed the whole world once again Sunday afternoon that he can battle with the best of the best. He brought his A-game to the national spotlight, dominated one of the greatest scorers in NBA history, and led his team to a crunch-time victory, checking off all the boxes of his favorite type of game.