Jayson Tatum and the Boston Celtics had a tough time beating the 8th-seeded Atlanta Hawks in the first round of the Eastern Conference. Although it looked like the series will go to Game 7 until the 4th quarter as Trae Young was exchanging buckets with last year’s Larry Bird award winner, the Cs settled it in 6 games.
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And while it took a game-high 32-point performance by Jaylen Brown to get the 128-120 win, Tatum’s 30 points, 14 rebounds, and 7 assists to go along with 2 blocks and a steal were as important.
This 30-point performance was his second one in this series and 17th overall in 80 games for the Celtics in the post-season. With it, he passed over a Boston legend in that category.
Jayson Tatum passes Paul Pierce for most 30-point games in the Playoffs
Obviously, the list is topped by none other than, Larry Bird, who had 43 thirty-point games in 164 career playoff games. Paul Pierce was 4th on this list with 16 such games in 136 games.
JT has taken that spot from the 2008 Finals MVP, keeping up with his run of wreaking records while leading the team deep into the playoffs.
Jayson Tatum records his 17th career 30-point Playoff game, passing Paul Pierce for 4th-most in Celtics franchise history:
1. Larry Bird – 43
2. John Havlicek – 30
3. Sam Jones – 21
4. Jayson Tatum – 17
5. Paul Pierce – 16 pic.twitter.com/91dDHF47jI— NBA History (@NBAHistory) April 28, 2023
But he would want to go deeper than last year, which would be, winning a championship game. And now the Sixers stand in their way to getting one step closer to the 2023 Championship.
How do the Celtics match up with Sixers?
Their strategy to just stop Young in the final two-quarters of Game 6, while letting every other Hawks player have their way worked against the Atlanta team, still, it was a closer series than the 4-2 result would tell us.
That strategy of stopping just Joel Embiid or James Harden, or both, and letting other Sixers players try their luck, might not work for even one game.
Tyrese Maxey and Tobias Harris have shown in their series against the Nets, who were no joke on the defensive side of the ball, what they can do on a consistent basis when Embiid and Harden are not doing well.
Let’s hope Joe Mazzulla and his boys sort it out by the 1st of May.
