Some of the greatest players in basketball history suited up for the Boston Celtics. None of them matched the stat line Jayson Tatum posted Saturday night in Chicago.
In one of the most impressive performances of this NBA season, Tatum piled up 43 points, 16 rebounds and 10 assists as the Celtics routed the Bulls 123-98. He was the first Boston player ever to post those numbers in a single game and the first from any team to do so since Luka Doncic in December 2022.
The only other Celtic ever to record a 40-point triple-double was Larry Bird, who had three such games during his Hall of Fame career. Bird played at least 46 minutes in each of those games, two of which went to overtime. Tatum played 36 in his, watching the final minutes from the bench with Boston up big.
Add in Tatum’s shooting stats (16-for-24 from the floor, 9-for-15 from 3-point range), and he joined an even more exclusive club. The other only player in NBA history to go for 43-16-10 with at least nine made threes: James Harden against the New York Knicks on New Year’s Eve 2016.
“I think any time you see a guy play like that, you’re just kind of fascinated by it,” Celtics coach Joe Mazzulla told reporters postgame. “But I thought he did it within the flow of the game. I don’t think he went outside of what we normally do, and that’s a testament to him. But just his shot-making, his decision-making and then his ability to rebound was just great.
“I thought he kind of controlled the entire game with his poise and decision-making and took what the defense gave him.”
Boston also got productive nights from Kristaps Porzingis (22 points, seven rebounds, two steals, two blocks) and Jaylen Brown (19 points, eight assists, five rebounds, one steal) as the Celtics avenged their contentious home loss to Chicago on Thursday.
Mazzulla’s club improved to 22-6 and has yet to lose consecutive games this season.
The Celtics’ 3-point issues from Thursday night carried over into the early portion of Saturday’s rematch. They made just one of their first six threes, and the Bulls led for much of the first quarter. Boston was able to exploit Chicago’s NBA-worst paint defense, however, starting 7-for-9 on shots inside the restricted area and owning a 14-4 edge in points in the paint during the first quarter.
Brown spearheaded that effort, with all 10 of his first-quarter points coming on shots at the rim or free throws earned through drives. Mazzulla played Brown for the entire opening quarter, subbing out Tatum after eight minutes.
Oddly, for all the success Boston had attacking the rim early, both teams missed badly on dunk attempts in the first quarter, with Derrick White bricking what would have been a highlight-reel jam for the Celtics and the Bulls botching two. That would change as the game progressed.
Tied at 28-28 after one, the Celtics reeled off a rapid 12-2 run midway through the second quarter that put them up double digits. Brown and Tatum provided 10 of those points, and both hit double figures before halftime, with Tatum one rebound shy of a first-half double-double. Porzingis fueled Boston’s offense early in the second, scoring or assisting on each of the Celtics’ first four baskets in the quarter (while adding a pair of free throws).
Boston led by 12 late in the first half, took a 61-54 advantage into the locker room and then dominated a third quarter that featured one eye-popping slam from Porzingis and two from Tatum. Up eight with just over two remaining in the third, Tatum slipped past Coby White at the 3-point line and posterized Jalen Smith at the rim. He then proceeded to drill two threes as Boston stretched its lead to 16.
Tatum was close to perfect in the third quarter, going 7-for-8 from the floor and nearly outscoring Chicago by himself (23-18). He also grabbed five rebounds to the Bulls’ six as a team. The Celtics led 93-77 entering the fourth quarter and cruised from there, with Tatum adding his seventh, eighth and ninth 3-pointers before shutting it down for the night with 3:27 to play.
In ESPN’s first NBA MVP straw poll of the season, released Friday, Tatum ranked fourth behind Nikola Jokic, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and Giannis Antetokounmpo. He did not receive a single first-place vote and got just three of the 95 second-place votes.
Asked whether Tatum’s talent gets overlooked in MVP debates – he finished sixth in official voting last season and has never been higher than fourth – Mazzulla replied: “Yeah, no question. One-hundred percent it does.”
“I say this about him all the time: Because he’s been doing great things for such a long time, I still think he gets taken for granted,” the coach told reporters. “I think his greatness gets taken for granted because he’s done it for a long time and it comes relatively easy for him. And we’re in Boston, which is the expectation. But it’s big-time – big-time performance by him.”
This was the type of performance that could change voters’ minds about Tatum, who leads the Celtics in points, rebounds, assists and steals per game this season.
The Celtics will visit the Orlando Magic on Monday night.
Mazzulla fined
Mazzulla’s holiday wishes cost him a pretty penny.
The Celtics head coach was fined $35,000 on Saturday for “aggressively pursuing and directing inappropriate language toward a game official” after Thursday night’s loss to the Bulls.
Mazzulla had to be held back by multiple members of his coaching staff and escorted toward the locker room while attempting to argue with Tony Brothers’ officiating crew. Asked after the game about the exchange, the coach quipped: “I just hadn’t seen them in a while, so (I was saying) just a Merry Christmas, happy holidays,”
Mazzulla was hit with a technical foul during the fourth quarter of the loss for coming onto the court to argue a jump-ball call. He said postgame that he deserved the tech, and he told reporters Saturday that he expected to be fined.
“It is what it is,” Mazzulla said in his pregame news conference. “Those are the rules. … I don’t know if it’s about sending a message, but at the time, I felt like we did what we needed to do, and move on.”
