Celtics stars Tatum and Brown put on quite an All-Star show
SALT LAKE CITY — Best record in the NBA. A team that won the Eastern Conference and went to the NBA Finals last season. A pair of All-Stars, including the MVP. And a coach who isn’t an interim coach anymore.
The Boston Celtics have much to like about where they are right now.
Jayson Tatum’s AllStar scoring records — 55 points in the game, 27 points in the third quarter, both numbers that never have been touched by any of the other 449 All-Stars in league history — were the big story coming out of Team Giannis’ 184-175 victory over Team LeBron on Sunday night.
And it might have signaled that the soon-to-be 25-year-old Tatum — Boston’s first All-Star MVP since Larry Bird in 1982 — is ready to take the step from stardom to something even bigger.
“I guess I’m not 19 anymore,” said Tatum, whose birthday is March 3. “But yeah, I say it all the time. I’m extremely grateful and blessed to be in this situation. I’m not too far removed from being a kid in St. Louis with essentially a ball and a dream and dreaming about these moments of being here. And living out that dream, in reality, is hard to describe. I try not to really think about the things I’ve accomplished. I never want to get complacent. I’m always chasing something, chasing more.”
That chase resumes Thursday night when the Celtics open their post-AllStar slate in Indiana. Boston takes a league-best 42-17 record into the stretch run, a half-game better than Milwaukee (41-17) for the top spots in both the East and the NBA. But the Bucks are ailing; Khris Middleton’s
knee is a concern, and winning All-Star captain Giannis Antetokounmpo played only 20 seconds Sunday night because of a wrist issue.
The Celtics, meanwhile, are soaring. Tatum and Jaylen Brown — playing for Team LeBron — combined for 90 points in the All-Star Game, further solidifying themselves as one of the best pairings in the league right now.