BOSTON – It would have been easy to have a narrative focused on Boston’s first-year forward Jayson Tatum facing redshirt rookie Ben Simmons for the first time in the playoffs.
While Tatum doesn’t shy away from competition, his focus all season has been on finding ways to contribute to winning.
And Tatum’s play may be more than any other Celtic, was key to Boston having little trouble in defeating the Sixers 117-101 in Game 1 of their best-of-seven series.
Tatum had a career-high 28 points on 8-for-16 shooting field.
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“I thought he was great,” said Sixers head coach Brett Brown. “I think he’s had an exceptional year. He’s got a lot of bounce and a lot of game. I thought tonight he scored in a variety of ways. I thought he was excellent.”
Boston Celtics
Indeed, Tatum was extremely aggressive in attacking the rim and beating his defenders off the dribble.
Tatum was 11-for-12 from the free throw line in Game 1. The rest of the Celtics shot (and made) a combined seven free throw attempts.
“I thought he was really good, really consistent, made some tough shots, but also got to the rim and made some plays for us,” said Celtics head coach Brad Stevens. “Got to the line, which we needed, with his drive. So, I thought he had a good game.”
Tatum said his mindset coming into this series was to be aggressive.
“Especially with JB (Jaylen Brown) out,” Tatum said. “That’s 20 points sitting on the bench. So, we tried to make up for that tonight.”
Jaylen Brown suffered a right hamstring injury in the second quarter of Boston’s Game 7 win over Milwaukee on Saturday.
He was unable to play tonight, but Brown told NBC Sports Boston that he intends to be back in the lineup for Boston’s Game 2 tilt on Thursday.
With or without Brown, Tatum has taken yet another giant leap in his ascension towards becoming one of the best players in the NBA.
“He’s got a bounce,” Brown said. When I watch him, he plays sort of older than his resume suggests.”
And it is that basketball maturity on the floor that has made the 20-year-old Tatum such a tough basketball cover for young or old.
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