Five years ago, on April 29, the first round of the Eastern Conference was the Big Seven.
The Celtics and Bucks have gone 3-3 in their previous six games and this match will be about who qualifies for the Eastern Conference semifinals.
At that time, Alphabet Brother was still very young, and he was not yet an MVP.
It's just that compared to him, there is a younger person on the other side, he is Tatum, who has just turned 20.
In the whole game, Tatum scored 20 points, 6 rebounds and 5 assists, helping the team win the best-of-seven game against the Bucks.
Back then, NBA scoring wasn't as explosive as it is now, so Tatum's 20+6+5 was good enough and critical.
Most importantly, this was just the first playoff series of his career, and he became the team's best-of-seven hero.
Perhaps at that time, no one could realize that Tatum's performance in the Battle of the Seven had just begun.
In today's 112-88 win over the 76ers, Tatum scored a crazy 51 points, breaking Curry's record of just two weeks and becoming the player with the most points in NBA history.
From 20 to 25 years old, from defeating the Bucks to eliminating the 76ers today, Tatum has experienced 6 big 7 battles, which is even more than many stars who have been famous for many years, and Tatum's answer in these 6 games is a terrifying 5-1.
Tatum's only time to date to lose a tie-for-seven battle also happened during his rookie season.
It was a thrilling battle of the Seven, which is still mentioned many times by Tatum himself. In this G7 of the 2018 Eastern Conference finals, the person standing across from him is James.
By the end of the game, the atmosphere between the two sides became tense.
Tatum received a pass from outside the three-point line, he rushed directly to the basket, completed a shocking dunk across James, and was so excited that he even hit James with his chest, which made the latter very stunned.
In the next round, Tatum hit a 3-pointer at 45 degrees on the right to help the team build its advantage.
However, it all came to an abrupt end.
There are three things that Tatum is powerless to stop, one is beyond James's crazy performance; The second is the frequent whistle of the referee, who was blown 6 times in the second half of the game and had no choice but to get off the field; The third is Rozier and Jaylen Brown's continuous blacksmithing.
While Tatum scored 24 points, Jaylen Brown was 5-of-18 (3-of-12 from three-point range) and Rozier was 2-of-14 (0-of-10 from three-point range).
In the final moments of the game, Tatum was replaced early for six offenses, and Hayward put his arm around him and said, "We'll get it back!" ”
After the game, James went out of his way to find Tatum to send his own praise and encouragement to the junior.
Tatum once again stood on the stage of the Big Seven battle, which took place in the 2020 park semifinals.
Against the defending champion Raptors, Tatum had 29 points, 12 rebounds and 7 assists while he was just a junior.
In the final moments of the game, Tatum saved teammate Grant Williams.
With the team leading by just two points and Gwee uncontrollably missing both free throws, Tatum jumped high to grab a rebound and foul and hit a steady free throw to help the team win.
In the playoffs last season, Tatum twice played in the Big Seven.
In the same series that just eliminated the 76ers, the Green Army lost at home to Tianwangshan, won G6 away with Tatum's god-level performance, and welcomed a tie-break at home against their opponents.
Tatum did not become the absolute protagonist in this game, but still handed over 23 points, 6 rebounds and 8 assists.
As in today's game, the Green Army built a huge advantage in the third quarter.
Tatum hit a quick three-pointer, followed by three assists in a row for his teammates. Seeing the margin widening, the defending champion Bucks are showing signs of collapse.
The referee quickly gave Tatum his fourth foul of the game, so he had to go off the court, which is why Tatum's play this game was slightly "average".
Fortunately, the aforementioned Grant Williams stepped up, and he hit 7 three-pointers in this game, setting a record in NBA history for the best-of-seven games.
Half a month later, Tatum and the Celtics were once again in the Heat's home game to tie the Big Seven.
After a year, people are more interested in talking about Butler's missed equalizer in the final moments.
But few mention Tatum's 98-percent back-up jumper and Bryant's 45-degree accurate three-pointer in the scorching moment helped the Green build an advantage the Heat couldn't overcome.
In this game, Tatum had 26 points, 10 rebounds and 6 assists, all three of which were team-high.
After the game, Tatum won the Eastern Conference Finals championship trophy for the first time in his career and the NBA's first Eastern Conference MVP award!
Then there is today's heavenly gods.
In G6, Tatum hit just 1-of-14 in the fourth quarter, and then saved himself with four threes to save the Celtics.
In the words of teammate Smart: "After a lot of criticism in the last game, I knew Tatum was going to erupt today. ”
Smart wasn't lying, and Tatum's determination today can be seen from the first round of the fight.
He burst to the basket to complete a powerful two-handed dunk to score the first two points of 51 points.
Throughout the first half, Tatum almost gave up his favorite three-point shot, and he frequently rushed to the basket or from mid-range dry, until the end of the second quarter, Tatum hit his first three-pointer of the day at 45 degrees on the left side.
Throughout the first half, Tatum scored 25 points on 9-of-16 shooting, which was indeed very efficient, but it was not a shock to the fans, and the team was only three points ahead.
Heading into the third quarter, Tatum began to really shine.
In the face of Joel Xinco MVP-ATM-Embiid, Tatum did not relent, and continued to pull and break through the basket, Tatum cut 17 points with only 7 shots, and almost single-handedly destroyed the 76ers. In this quarter alone, the Green Army outscored their opponents by 23 points.
Given that this is a life-and-death battle to grab seven, the 76ers will naturally not give up.
Facing the 76ers, who still had a glimmer of hope of turning over, Tatum personally saw them off.
Also facing Embiid, Tatum completed consecutive basket attacks, and then made two foul throws to score his 48th point!
The best performance is to be put to the end, facing Embiid in the bottom right corner, Tatum did not hesitate to get up and hit his sixth three-point shot today, bringing the score to 51 points in a single game.
The goal not only helped the team lead to 26 points, but also helped Tatum set numerous records.
One of the greatest is none more: NBA all-time scoring record in seven games!
Two weeks ago, Curry had just scored 50 points in Sacramento, making Tatum No. 2 all-time!
As mentioned above, Tatum has set countless records today, but there is no need to list them here.
Because the point is that in his 6th Seven-Fight Fight, Tatum won again and played his best performance in the Seven-Fight Fight.
From rookie to today, Tatum has won 7 wins and 1 loss 6 times in his career, with a win rate of 83.3%!
What is the horror of this data?
Compare with today's opponents,
Harden has made a total of 6 steals in 14 years of his career, with a record of 3-3;
Embiid has made three raids in nine years of his career, with a record of 0-3.
If we feel that Harden and Embiid are not at the same level, we can expand the scope further.
Durant has made a total of 4 steals in his career, with a record of 3-1;
Curry has made a total of 5 steals in his career, with a record of 3-2;
From the number of games to the number of wins, the only person who can fight Tatum is James.
James has made seven of eight games in his career and has a record of 6-2, and Tatum has a slight advantage over James.
Interestingly, the only person who won more than Tatum was actually his teammate Jaylen Brown, who entered the NBA a year before Tatum had a 6-1 record in seven steals. But the difference is that Jaylen is far from being the protagonist every time.
That's why it's not too much to call the 25-year-old Tatum "King of the Seven", right?
It has to be said that as the oldest team in the NBA, Tatum perfectly inherits the Green Army's will to grab seven.
Counting today's game, the Celtics won a tie-break for the 27th time in history, ranking first among the 30 teams in the league.
Tatum has contributed five of the Green Army's 27 best-of-seven victories, and one man is twice as good as him, the great Bill Russell.
Russell the Lord of the Rings demonstrated this trait in the early days of the Green Army, with a 10-0 record in 10 of his career-for-seven games, a record that no one has ever broken.
As the junior of the Lord of the Rings, Tatum is naturally far from being comparable to him, and even does not have the qualifications to compare at all.
But being able to inherit Russell's strong willpower, Tatum is enough to make Boston fans feel extremely excited.
However, the great Bill Russell is not only strong in the big seven, he has won 11 championship trophies for the Green Army.
Tatum, 25, had that opportunity last year, but he sadly missed it out in the finals.
A month and a half later, Bill Russell left this world.
Now the opportunity to win the cup is in front of Tatum again, can he seize it this time?