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Tim good morningESPN
BOSTON – After Celtics star Jayson Tatum scored 44 points to lead his team to a 119-114 victory over the Golden State Warriors on Saturday, surpassing Stephen Curry’s spectacular 47-point performance in the process, Tatum said that it’s a thrill for him to walk away with the future Hall of Famer and come out on top.
“Just mutual respect,” Tatum said when asked about the conversation the two had on the field at TD Garden afterwards. “Obviously, two great shows. I was glad I got the victory, but obviously it’s one of the best of all time.
“Just to earn respect and get a victory on the same night … it was a good night.”
It was a great night for anyone watching him, as the Celtics and Warriors threw him into one of the most fun games of the season. But as Curry continued his late hot series, eclipsing 30 points for a 10th straight game, Boston once again showed the kind of weight and endurance he lacked so often at the start of this season. The Celtics overcame a deficit of 16 points in the first half and returned to get a dramatic victory that had the ebbs and flows of a playoff game, as opposed to one in the middle of the regular season.
Much of this was due to the back-and-forth battle between Tatum and Curry – one that Tatum, who finished 16-for-25 overall and 5-for-9 in the 3-point range, eventually won.
“First of all, I’m afraid of what I watched tonight,” said Warriors coach Steve Kerr. “From a skill level and a level of competition, it seemed like a playoff game to me there. Both teams were just gassed and competed like crazy and just made incredible shots, especially from Steph and Jayson. So What a basketball game. It hurts to lose, but I told the team I feel they have improved tonight. “
This was the kind of game that, at the beginning of this season, the Celtics would have lost very easily. But for Boston, which has now won six in a row and eight out of nine since the calendar passed in April, these types of shows are becoming more and more credible. This is the third time in four games that the Celtics have overcome a double-digit deficit – after doing so in Denver on Sunday and Portland on Tuesday – to maintain this series.
But while there is clearly a new energy and momentum around this team that hasn’t been there before, Celtics coach Brad Stevens said it comes from a pretty obvious place: that the Celtics have finally managed to get most of the base rotation on the field and playing together lately – even if they were without three of the top six players in Jaylen Brown, Evan Fournier and Robert Williams on Saturday night.
“I think the number one reason for our little run here is that we were, for the most part, healthier,” Stevens said. “Now, tonight, we were a little less, but we missed a lot of guys at the beginning of the year. I know that sounds like an excuse. I hope not. I think what we tried to do is stay on the line. floating as well as we could and hopefully we’ll get to a point where we’ll get a little healthier and we’ll work out a few weeks of good basketball take a little boost, then you tend to respond when you you feel great “.
Of course, it also helps a young star to warm up, as Tatum did in it, while Kemba Walker earned 26 points – including a critical 3-pointer with 24.8 seconds left to help avoiding Curry and the Warriors. But after his last big performance, Tatum averaged 29.3 points in April and eventually helped the Celtics start to move away from the chance to play in the play-in tournament after a season full of attacks. and starts that saw a few players. – including Tatum – COVID-19 contract.
Tatum scored 53 points in that building just eight days ago to establish a new career, but that game was against the Minnesota Timberwolves, one of the worst teams in the league. He came to national television in a back-and-forth duel with one of Curry’s best players – a game that saw both players hit massive shots on the stretch.
“It’s incredible,” Celtics goalkeeper Marcus Smart said of Tatum’s development. “It’s a good feeling to see, it’s a good feeling to be a part of it. Just seeing his development and seeing him continue to rise into a great player, it was definitely a pleasure to be a part of.”
And along the way, Tatum earned the respect of Curry, who had a lot of praise for the young star after the game.
“I just told him he’s very tough, man,” Curry said. “You can see that the game has slowed down for him. Just the way he chooses and chooses his places and how he manages the game. He shoots the ball much better from the perimeter, but when the game slows down, I don’t know if it’s four or five years old, whatever it is, then you become lethal.
“With your skill set, its size, their system presents it, so it’s a supreme talent. Supreme talent. ”