The Nets' game against the Celtics has been in the spotlight this season, and on the one hand, the showdown between Durant and Tatum is highly anticipated. On the other hand, the two teams were opponents in the first round of last season's playoffs, and with Irving's reasons, the two sides have long been full of grudges. Before this game, the Celtics had already won two straight, and the Nets were in very bad shape, having suffered three straight losses.
In the first quarter of the game, the two sides were caught in a tug-of-war, and with the excellent performance at the end of the quarter, the Nets led by five points at the end of the first quarter. In the second quarter, Tatum led the team to a small climax to overtake the score, but the Nets quickly responded, and the Nets still led by 2 points at the end of the quarter. In the third quarter, the two sides fought against each other, and under the leadership of Tatum, the Celtics always clung to the point difference, and by the end of the quarter the score gap between the two sides was already very small. In the final quarter, Tatum almost single-handedly confronted the Entire Nets, and finally completed the rebound, winning 126:120.
The main reason why the Celtics were able to complete the reversal in the final quarter after almost a full game behind was undoubtedly Tatum's play. Tatum played a crazy game again, playing 41 minutes in the whole game, shooting 16-of-30, including 8 of 15 three-pointers, in addition to hitting 14 free throws, crazy cut 54 points, while also 5 rebounds and 3 assists performance into the account, setting a new single-game scoring record this season, the Nets team almost nothing to do with him.
In the first quarter of the game, Tatum showed an extremely hot state, and constantly caused killing, scoring 9 points in a single quarter. In the second quarter, Tatum began to try more outside shots, shooting 3 of 7 from three-pointers in a single quarter, scoring 11 points in a single quarter, and scoring 20 points in the entire first half, which was just the prelude to Tatum's crazy performance in this game. In the second half, Tatum continued his excellent performance, hitting three-pointers in the third quarter of the game, cutting 16 points in a single quarter, helping the team to always cling to the score.
In the final quarter, Tatum was still unstoppable, and although he only hit a three-pointer in the single quarter, he scored 18 points in a single quarter through his inexplicable emergency pull and killing the inside line. Under Tatum's leadership, the Celtics finally completed the counter-attack and maintained the lead to the end. Throughout the game, no matter who in the Nets defended Tatum, they could not limit the latter very well, including Irving and Durant, who were directly pulled by Tatum to defend and scored difficult goals. In this campaign, in addition to Tatum's high score of 54 points, his confrontation with Durant also left a deep impression on the fans.
This campaign is only durant's second game since his return, and he has scored another 30+ points in this campaign after scoring 31 points in the previous game. Durant played 39 minutes in this game, scoring 37 points, 6 rebounds, 8 assists and 2 blocks on 4 of 21 three-pointers, and did not see any impact on him by injury. However, he was defended by Tatum and made seven turnovers. Since last season's playoffs, the alignment between Durant and Tatum has been full of highlights, and the two can repeatedly compete with each other. Again, they showed a high-level showdown, but in this game, Tatum is undoubtedly the more dominant side.
After the classic First World War, Tatum set several career records. First of all, this is his new single-game scoring record this season, before the 54 points of this game, he had cut a luxurious quasi-triple-double of 51 points, 10 rebounds and 7 assists in 33 minutes against the Wizards this season, and he became the first player this season to cut 50+ multiple times. Secondly, this is only the fifth season of Tatum's career, he has cut 4 50+ times, equaling the team record set by Bird, and it is only a matter of time before he breaks this record and becomes the first person in history.
In the end, Tatum also became the first player in league history to be able to cut 50+ against the Nets in the regular season, which also made him take a bad breath. In last season's playoffs, due to Brown's injury, the seventh-placed Celtics in the East had to rely on Tatum's single-core lead against the Nets, which have a powerful Big Three. Already 0-2 behind, Tatum ushered in a big explosion in the third game, frantically cutting down 50 points, 6 rebounds and 7 assists in a single game to help the team pull back a city. But with two fists unable to beat four hands, the Celtics were eventually swept out by the Nets Gentlemen 1:4 in the first round.
This season, Tatum has not actually been smooth sailing, and at the beginning of the season, Tatum's form has dropped greatly. He's been crazy in many games, especially when it comes to three-point shooting, and in many games he's shooting less than 20 percent from three-point range. Fortunately, Tatum quickly adjusted, especially since February, Tatum handed over a fairly good shooting report card. In the last three consecutive wins, Tatum has scored more than 30 points in all three games and scored 54 points in this game.
Under his leadership, the state of the Celtics has also undergone incredible changes. At the beginning of the season, their record was very unsatisfactory, falling out of the top eight in the East at one point. And with Tatum's return to form, and after the trading deadline, they're back on track. After this game, they have won three consecutive games, and the record has reached 39 wins and 27 losses, which has reached the fifth place in the East and is only 1.5 wins away from the top three in the East. If they can maintain their current status, they are likely to enter the top three in the East.
Two months ago, their record was just 18 wins and 21 losses, ranking only 11th in the East. That said, in just two months, they achieved an impressive record of 21 wins and 6 losses. As long as they can maintain their current record, they will not be a problem in reaching the playoffs, and they will also become one of the most likely teams in the Eastern Conference to reach the Finals.