Tatum’s 50 leads Celtics to 125-119 Game 3 win over Nets

By the end Kyrie Irving, booed to distraction when he had the ball and during timeouts, was barely noticeable. Instead, his former team, flying on the 25 percent capacity crowd’s energy, finally hit back.

Jayson Tatum, subdued in the first two games and momentarily sidelined due to a poked eye, broke out with a career playoff high 50-point performance to lead the Celtics to a 125-119 Game 3 win over Brooklyn.

The Celtics withstood monstrous performances from Kevin Durant (39 points) and James Harden (41) to cut Brooklyn’s first-round series lead to 2-1. Marcus Smart stepped up as Tatum’s vital release valve with a 23-point performance that included 5-for-8 3-point shooting.

It was Tatum’s fourth 50-plus performance of the season.

Game 4 is at 7 p.m. Sunday at the Garden.

Irving received the expected caustic welcome from the crowd, getting booed on every touch and essentially fading from view with a 16-point, 6-for-17 performance.

Kemba Walker, 2-for-12 from the floor, followed up an Evan Fournier 3-pointer by hitting a 15-footer for a 116-105 Celtics lead with 3:36 left.

Durant went 1-for-2 from the line, and after a Smart drive Harden hit his seventh 3-pointer. Tatum’s foul sent Bruce Brown to the line to hit twice, cutting the margin to 118-111.

But Tatum drew a foul on Brown on the other end and with 2:18 left hit twice for a 120-111 lead. Durant hit twice from the line with 2:11 left, and the next time down Tatum put up a late clock airball.

But Harden missed an open 3-point attempt from up top, then a Walker miss went out of bounds off the Nets. Tatum missed from deep, and with 58.7 seconds left Irving cut the Celtics lead to two points with two free throws.

But Tatum buried an 18-foot step-back over Durant with 40.8 seconds left for a 122-115 lead.  Smart thought he had drawn an offensive foul on Durant on the subsequent inbounds play, though the play was overturned by video challenge.

Durant hit a free throw off Smart’s foul, but missed a jumper on the subsequent possession. Fournier missed the first of two free throws with 25.6 seconds left, but still the Celtics led, 123-116.

Durant came out of a timeout with a 3-pointer that cut the Celtics lead to 123-119 with 21.6 seconds left,  but the Celtics salted it away when Grant Williams dunked off a Fournier pass.

Tatum scored the last eight points of a 24-6 Celtics run that also included three 3-pointers from Smart, and staked the Celtics to a 96-84 lead by the end of the quarter. Irving had a fouling hand in two big C’s scoring plays — a Smart four-point play and a Tatum three-point play.

Irving had eight points on 4-for-13 shooting by the end of the third, mirrored in the Celtics end by Kemba Walker’s two points on 1-for-8 shooting.

Harden had two 3-pointers in the first 2:45 of the fourth quarter with one problem. The shots sandwiched a 7-0 Celtics run that was good for a 105-91 lead.

But when Harden buried a third bomb, followed by Irving’s first three of the night, the Celtics called timeout with their lead cut to 105-97 with 7:35 left.

Tatum answered from 15 feet and when Irving hit a corner three, Tatum slashed for two free throws and a 109-100 lead with 5:50 left.

Tatum was now dueling the entire Nets big three, though,  with Durant hitting three free throws that cut the lead to 111-105.

But Fournier hit a 3-pointer with 4:25 left, Smart drew an offensive foul on Irving, who also missed a pull-up the next time down, and Walker, 2-for-12 to this point, hit a 15-footer for a 116-105 lead with 3:36 left.

from Boston Herald https://ift.tt/3i5hjPQ