Boston Celtics Recap: Jayson Tatum shines as Cs force game 6

Behind Jayson Tatum’s 31 point performance, the Boston Celtics keep their hopes alive as they force a game 6 in these Eastern Conference Finals.

Coming into this series, Boston Celtics fans knew the Miami Heat were going to be a pest to get past in an effort to advance to this year’s NBA Finals. Game 5 proved to Heat fans that this sentiment is a two-way street.

Despite starting off the game slow and completely out of synch — Cs found themselves in a 17-5 hole within the first few minutes of regulation — Boston managed to prove that, though no deficit is ideal, they have all the tools necessary to weather any storm.

Staring out the second half trailing 55-51, the Celtics deferred the first basket to Miami at the start of the third. This, however, followed up with an absolute surge by the shamrocks as they went on with 13 unanswered points and, in turn, claimed their first lead of the night.

From this point, until the final buzzer sounded, they did not seem to take their foot off the gas.

Easily the biggest catalyst for Boston’s comeback victory, All-Star Jayson Tatum accumulated 21 of his 31 total points in the second half — he also wound up nabbing 10 rebounds and six assists along the way.

Jaylen Brown, who’s drive early on was one of the main factors in keeping this game within striking distance heading into the break, found himself finishing second in the overall point category with 28 points on an impressive 52 percent shooting from the field and 40 percent shooting from deep, including two clutch back-to-back treys in the final quarter.

Kemba Walker and Marcus Smart dropped 15 and 12 points, respectively, to go along with a combined 15 assists, 10 rebounds, and five steals on 45 percent shooting from downtown.

Daniel Theis, too, had quite a solid performance, as he posted a pivotal 15 points, 13 boards, and three blocks on 60 percent shooting from the floor. His defensive prowess and rebounding tenacity certainly did not go unnoticed by the Houdini and played major factors in Boston’s victory.

On the flip side, Goran Dragic continued his playoff excellence, dropping 23 points before fouling out with 4:27. Duncan Robinson also managed to keep his hot-streak alive, scoring 20 points in the contest, though luckily his luck ran out in the second half as he scored just three more points in the final two quarters.

Tyler Herro, who was the messiah in game four, came back down to earth in Friday’s match, scoring just 14 points, but did have an impressive conversion rate of 50 percent shooting from the floor.

As for Miami’s All-Stars in Jimmy Butler and Bam Adebayo, they finished the night with 17 and 13 points, respectively, to go along with eight assists and rebounds apiece.

Despite the Heat being lights-out from downtown throughout these playoffs, the Boston Celtics managed to hold them to 7-36 shooting from deep (24.8 percent) while converting on 37.5 percent of their own attempts, themselves.

All in all, the Celtics managed to play a brand of basketball man of us have not seen during this series thus far. In fact, when talking to his team during their second-half run, Brad Stevens acknowledged as such, stating, “In all sincerity, first time I’ve seen Celtics basketball in the last few games”.

Game 6 is scheduled for a 7:30 PM (ET) tip-off this Sunday. Let’s hope we continue to see this type of Cs basketball moving forward, as it will be the only way they’ll have any chance of coming out of this 3-2 hole.