It rimmed out, the only clean look he missed all night.Nov. He finished a protein shake and tossed it toward a trash can in the corner. Trainers had added extra just to cool him off. The Celtics are also aware their latest win over Philadelphia makes them prohibitive title favorites.īack inside the locker room, as teammates took turns congratulating Tatum, he shoveled ice from the bucket in which he soaks his tired feet. Having split two meetings with Miami in the conference finals over the previous three seasons, Tatum and company know all too well about Jimmy Butler, Bam Adebayo and the rest of a challenger that fights harder than the more talented Sixers. That is all Boston has before hosting the Heat for Game 1 on Wednesday (8:30 p.m. How do you even play another game after a night that felt like a championship celebration? "A couple days' rest." "On to the next one," said a smiling Mike Zarren, the Celtics' vice president of basketball operations. Just then, Rivers passed the Tatums, half-joking, "Too much joy in this f***ing hallway." Tatum had just wrapped her a hell of a Mother's Day gift, complete with a trip to Miami for the Eastern Conference finals. Meanwhile, a beaming Brandy Cole waited in the hallway for her son, the rising superstar. That was a great feeling to win that and come back home." They had us, and we figured out a way to win. The end of that third, going into the fourth, the game was back and forth, the crowd was into it. "We have a saying, 'There's only up from here.' They had us on the ropes in Game 6. "It definitely was in my mind that I had played as bad as it could get for 43 minutes," Tatum said of his poor showing two nights earlier. "We were done." And then they weren't, because Tatum lit a fourth-quarter spark that started Sunday's inferno. In the locker room after Game 7, Tatum told teammates he understood how hard it was for the Sixers to get back on a plane bound for Boston after so deflating a loss on Thursday. All I can say is, all praise to the 'Most High.' We're both extremely grateful to be here." We're looking forward to winning more games and continuing this process. "It takes a lot of sacrifice, intensity, emotion and hard work. "To win in the playoffs is extremely hard," added co-star Jaylen Brown, who scored 25 points. They feed off emotion and energy, and it's reciprocated." I love getting to play big games, put on big performances in front of them. ![]() I feel that they embrace me almost as one of their own, and that means a lot. "Whether it's pregame, during the game at the free-throw line, I've been here my whole career. "I can't express it enough, the genuine love I feel from the crowd," said Tatum, who added 13 rebounds, 5 assists and not a single turnover in 42 minutes of Game 7. ![]() It was only two nights earlier when Tatum started 1-for-14 from the field in a must-win Game 6. With each successive bucket, Tatum impressed himself, at one point shouting, "Oh, my God," and turning each time to his family section seated front row, as if they were the conduit through which he plugged into the arena. Being able to just sit back, each your popcorn and watch, sometimes we do get in that mode where we forget we're on the court playing with him and we've got to continue to play, because he's able to make shots at a high difficulty and get hot like he did tonight. "It's a movie," said Celtics guard Marcus Smart, who finished +31 in 39 minutes, second only to Tatum's +33. (AP Photo/Steven Senne) (ASSOCIATED PRESS) I have to move ahead, but I may go back just to see what we did, because it was impressive."īoston Celtics forward Jayson Tatum receives applause as he steps off the court near the end of Game 7 against the Philadelphia 76ers in the Eastern Conference semifinal series, Sunday, May 14, 2023, in Boston. "I don't know if I'll go back and watch the whole game. "It was beautiful to see," said Celtics veteran Al Horford. Tatum scored 10 straight points, including consecutive step-back 3-pointers over reigning MVP Joel Embiid, during a 28-3 run that suffocated the Sixers. The game was tied, 55-55, in the opening minute of the second half, when he transcended. "You never know what might happen," said Ryan. (Ryan will point that he was in Los Angeles when Larry Bird dropped a 39-12-10 on the New York Knicks in a second-round Game 7.) ![]() You knew the night was special when legendary sportswriter Bob Ryan, whose career on the Celtics beat began shortly after Bill Russell's 11th and final championship in 1969, tells you that Tatum's achievement was the greatest Game 7 he has seen live from someone in a Celtics uniform.
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