Maybe Jayson Tatum’s just been feeling a little nostalgic for his college days.
The Boston Celtics’ all-star forward dropped a game-high 30 points with college-hoops sensation Cooper Flag and his Duke teammates looking on, leading the defending NBA champions to a 27-point victory over the Orlando Magic (23-20) on Friday.
Tatum, a former Duke standout, scored just 16 points in his team’s last outing — a 13-point defeat at the hands of a 10-win Toronto Raptors team — but set the tone early against a slumping Magic squad. The Celtics shot a season-best 61% from the floor in the first half, and outshot their opponent 17-5 in the game from beyond the arc.
“I think our physicality was where it needed to be tonight,” Tatum told ESPN’s Malika Andrews after the game. His alma mater’s third-ranked basketball team will remain in town Saturday to take on Boston College. “We lost to these guys about a month ago or so, so just trying to take pride in that physicality. They’re a real physical team and they play hard. So, we tried to match that tonight from the beginning, and everybody who came into the game did a really good job.”
Tatum finished 12-for-21 from the field, including four three-pointers, and added six rebounds and four assists to his stat line. The 30-point effort ties Tatum with Michael Jordan for eighth place (12,908) for the most points scored in NBA history before the age of 27. LeBron James holds that record with 17,460.
Boston, which took a 12-point advantage into the half and never looked back, also benefited from double-digit scoring efforts from Kristaps Porzingis (23 points), Jaylen Brown (20 points, six rebounds, six assists) and Derrick White (12 points). And the well-balanced box score was a welcomed sight after no Celtics starter scored more than 18 points in the team’s unexpected loss to Toronto earlier in the week.
“It was a for sure step in the right direction,” Porzingis told reporters after the game. “We played some good basketball. I think it was healthy for us to get an ugly loss. A little bit like a wake-up call. We’ve been up and down a little but lately and getting a loss like that really stung the way it needs to sting, and again tonight we looked like a different team.”
Cole Anthony led Orlando’s offense with 23 points and seven rebounds, followed by Paolo Banchero with 21 points, and Wendell Carter, Jr., with 15 points. The Magic, who’ve won just one of their last five games, will try and bounce back Sunday when they welcome the Denver Nuggets (25-16) to town.
The Celtics, meanwhile, will have no time to celebrate Friday’s victory as they welcome the Atlanta Hawks (21-19) to the TD Garden on Saturday to bookend a back-to-back that precedes a major road trip out west. Boston’s top-two centers, Porzingis and Al Horford, will not play in that contest in a coach’s decision given the back-to-back games.
“We talk about it all the time,” Tatum said of his team’s response to its recent string of disappointing play. “Don’t expect it to go however you thought it was going to go. And that’s just where we’re at. Whether that’s good or bad, we understand we could be playing a lot better, but we’re in this position and we’ve got to figure it out together. And there’s no other locker room and no other guys I’d rather do it with.”
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