Celtics Jayson Tatum named Eastern Conference player of the week

53 point performance leads Boston Celtics star to Player of the Week award

For the second time this season, Boston Celtics All-Star forward, Jayson Tatum, has been named the Eastern Conference Player of the Week, per Shams Charania on Twitter.

The Cs went 3-1 in their games for the week of April 5-11, with the only loss coming against the Philadelphia 76ers in a game where the team couldn’t get anything going offensively.

Tatum showed out during the four-game stretch, averaging 31.5 points, 8.5 rebounds, and about 3.8 assists per game.

The highlight of the week came when he scored a team, game, and career-high 53 points in their overtime victory against the Minnesota Timberwolves. In that game, Tatum became the youngest player in Boston Celtics history to score 50 points or more in a game.

He is now tied with Larry Bird for the third-highest point total in a single game, behind Kevin McHale‘s 56 point game and Bird’s own 60 points. Tatum is also the third Celtic since Bird in 1985 to score 50+ points in a game, joining Paul Pierce and Isaiah Thomas.

His lowlight of the week came in the loss against the 76ers where he only scored 20 points and shot a measly 30 percent from beyond the arc. That was the first game of the week and Tatum managed to bounce back in a big way.

This is the forward’s second Eastern Conference Player of the Week award, the first coming in the week of January 11th.

The 2x All-Star and reigning All-NBA Third Teamer has been the reason behind this late surge from the shamrocks.

Coming off of a three-game win streak, Boston is holding onto the seventh seed in the Eastern Conference. With 18 games left to play, they have time to sneak their way back up the standings and back towards the top of the Eastern Conference where they belong.