Celtics star Jayson Tatum leads NBA in this important fourth-quarter stat

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With all due respect to Isaiah Thomas, has a new "King in the Fourth" emerged for the Boston Celtics?

Celtics forward Jayson Tatum has consistently come through in the clutch early in the 2019-20 NBA season, highlighted by a game-winning shot to beat the New York Knicks on Nov. 2.

In fact, Tatum enters Wednesday night's road game against the Los Angeles Clippers with the best league's best shooting percentage on shots to tie or take the lead in the fourth quarter.

Tatum also is shooting a team-best 66.7 percent in clutch situations, which the league defines as five minutes or less remaining and the score margin within five points.

The 21-year-old star is enjoying a tremendous third season overall, averaging 20.2 points and a team-leading 7.5 rebounds per game. He scored a season-high 26 points in Boston's win over the Phoenix Suns on Monday night. It was his third 20-point effort in the last four games.

Tatum is no stranger to clutch situations. He faced plenty of them as a rookie in the 2018 playoffs, where he led the Celtics in scoring as the team came up just one win shy of an NBA Finals appearance. If Tatum is able to remain a strong performer late in games throughout the season, the Celtics should be pretty tough to beat because we already know Kemba Walker is capable of excelling in clutch situations.

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Don’t miss NBC Sports Boston's coverage of Celtics-Clippers, which tips off Wednesday at 9 p.m. ET with Celtics Pregame Live, then Mike & Scal have the call of the game at 10 p.m. You can also stream the game through the MyTeams App.

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