Jayson Tatum buried a 17-foot jumper at the overtime buzzer to cap a 40-point night, and the Boston Celtics beat the Brooklyn Nets 125-124 on Tuesday night for their third straight victory. Tatum finished 10-of-20 from the field and 18-of-22 from the free throw line. Paul George added 20 points, and Derrick White scored 16 for the Celtics, who have not lost since they blew a 22-point lead in their season opener at Detroit.
Tuesday night was Tatum's first 40-point game since returning in March from a torn right Achilles. He joined Larry Bird, who did it twice, as the only players in Celtics history to score at least 40 points and hit a buzzer-beater in the same game, according to Basketball Reference. It was Tatum's third career buzzer-beater, tying Bill Sharman for third most in Celtics history behind only Paul Pierce (6) and Bird (4). "That was a hell of a feeling," Tatum said of the shot. "Just kind of getting back to doing things that, you know, I used to do before I was injured."
Michael Porter Jr. had 27 points and 12 rebounds for Brooklyn (0-4), and Julius Randle scored 24. Nets rookie Mikel Brown Jr. made a tying 3-pointer with 0.2 seconds left in regulation, but in overtime he missed a layup with 2.3 seconds left that set up Tatum's winner. Brown, the sixth pick in the NBA draft out of Louisville, finished with 17 points.
Boston's Mitchell Robinson missed two free throws with three seconds left in regulation, a late chance that Brooklyn could not convert. With 33.7 seconds left, White slipped behind the defense for a tiebreaking dunk from Tatum, then converted a three-point play that made it 114-111. The Nets led 109-104 on a basket by Randle with 2:57 left before the Celtics rallied.
Source: ESPN NBA · Summarized by HeadlinesBriefing