Jayson Tatum's 51 vs. Sixers Sends Celtics Back To ECF

BOSTON — As Jayson Tatum connected on another 3-pointer midway through the third quarter on Sunday — on his way to outscoring the Philadelphia 76ers — he turned to a raucous Boston crowd and let out a cathartic shout

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Tatum scored 51 points, the most in a Game 7 in NBA history, to lead the Celtics to a 112–88 victory to advance to the Eastern Conference Finals. Tatum broke the record set by Stephen Curry two weeks ago

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He scored 50 points in Game 7 of the Golden State Warriors' first round series against the Sacramento Kings. Tatum shot 17 of 28 from the field and added 13 rebounds and five assists.

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Became the fifth player in NBA history to go at least 50-10-5 in a playoff game. "It's a movie," said Celtics guard Marcus Smart. "It's a big movie. Just being able to sit back, eat your popcorn and watch it."

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After struggling through one of the worst shooting nights of his career in Game 6, Tatum responded with one of the best performances in franchise history. He scored or assisted on 62 points in Game 7, surpassing the Sixers star duo of Joel Embiid (15 points) and James Harden (nine points), who combined to score or assist on 44 points.

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According to ESPN's tracking data, Tatum scored all 51 points in the half court against five different defenders, including 17 points against Embiid, the 2023 NBA MVP. Tatum finished fourth in voting for the award this season

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Which was a career-best performance, but by the end of the game the sold-out crowd at TD Garden filled him with chants of "MVP".

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Before the game, Tatum gave the Celtics a chance to redeem themselves after losing their last game in Boston on Sunday, receiving boos from the home crowd

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Tatum got off to a terrible start to Game 6, shooting 1-for-13 over the first three quarters before heating up late.

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Tatum said after Sunday's game, "I was really excited for this moment, to be able to come out and play today." "It was definitely in my mind that I did as bad as I could for 42, 43 minutes.

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had played. We have a saying, 'It's only up from here.'" It was clear he was ready to respond from the start of Game 7. Tatum scored 25 points in the first half after scoring 18 points in the first half of Games 4, 5 and 6 combined.

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