Jayson Tatum's 49-point outburst against the Heat adds to his growing MVP case
It's easy to forget this now, with his team atop the NBA and a Finals berth in his rearview mirror, but the Miami Heat actually gave Jayson Tatum a fair bit of trouble in the Eastern Conference Finals a year ago. He averaged "only" 23.8 point s on relatively inefficient shooting numbers in the last five games of the series. A similarly uneven series a gains t Golden State contributed to Boston's Finals loss. At the time there was a sense that while Tatum had ascended to the upper levels of the league's star class, he was still just a hair short of where he'd need to be for the Celtics to win the championship. Well, if those doubts really existed, they're gone now. Tatum's 2022-23 season speaks for itself. Nearly 31 points per game entering Wednesday. The best defense of his career. A 17-4 record to put Boston atop the Eastern Conference. In 20 games, Tatum had been held below 25 ...