The restart to the NBA season didn’t go as planned for Boston Celtics’ 22-year old star, Jayson Tatum. In the Celtics first game back, Tatum had a nightmare shooting night going 2-18 from the field with just five points. Whether it was the rust of the NBA suspension or Milwaukee’s tough defense, Tatum looked off-balance on most of his shots and overall out of rhythm for most of the night.
In their second game of the restart against Portland, the Celtics would need Tatum to have a much bigger impact against a team scrapping for a playoff spot.
Tatum would deliver an incredible bounce-back performance with 34 points on 50 percent shooting to go along with eight assists, two steals and a block.
Tatum wasn’t the only Celtic putting up numbers, his teammate 23-year-old Jaylen Brown dropped 30 points on 6/8 from three-point-range, with six rebounds and a pair of steals to match Tatum’s.
At one point the Celtics led the Trailblazers by 24, Portland guards Damian Lillard and CJ McCollum would lead a comeback with a scorching hot shooting stretch in the third quarter to put the Blazers back in the game and even capture the lead for a brief period.
In the fourth quarter, Tatum and Brown would score 24 points together to seal a big win over an extremely talented and determined Portland team. The Celtics will need a lot more games like these from their young duo if they expect to make a run in the playoffs this season but can be confident knowing they have two guys not even close to their primes yet that can take over a game in just about any way.
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