Tatum 40-piece sinks Raptors as Celtics cruise to 114-126 victory

Jayson Tatum scored a mighty 40 points with help from rookie Payton Pritchard to guide the Boston Celtics to victory over Toronto.

Tatum, one of the hottest properties in the NBA at just 22-years-old, fell one short of his career high 41 in Toronto’s temporary home in Tampa, Florida.

The forward put up 40 points on 11/19 shooting and made every single one of his 13 attempted free throws. He wasn’t done there as the star added six rebounds and two assists to his impressive stat sheet.

Tatum is the first player in Boston Celtics franchise history with three 40-point games before turning 23. The other games came against the New Orleans Pelicans and the Los Angeles Lakers last season.

This side-step three by Tatum ? pic.twitter.com/eAZjDSK5QB

— NBA on ESPN (@ESPNNBA) January 5, 2021

Boston coach Brad Stevens said  Tatum was “tremendous tonight, but we had a lot of good performances.”

One of the noted performances was that of rookie Payton Pritchard, who the Celtics drafted from Oregon as the 26th pick in the 2020 NBA Draft. ‘FastPP’, as he’s known by the fan base, shot an impressive 23 points and eight assists off the bench in 32 minutes.

Pritchard’s 23 points is the highest point total for any rookie in a single game this season. His minutes were extended largely in part due to starting guard Marcus Smart missing out by way of a thumb injury.

Stevens commended the rook, telling the media post-game:

“He’s very competitive. He was scoreless the other night, but played well. He keeps coming at you. We’re going to ask him to do a lot right now. Fair or not, he has to be consistent for us to have a chance to be a good team.”

Payton Pritchard rookie ranks:

Points – 4th
FGM – 3rd
Assists – 2nd
Steals – 2nd
Defensive rebounds – 10th
Plus/minus – 2nd

— Taylor Snow (@taylorcsnow) January 5, 2021

Boston’s bench scored 60 points on the night, with sophomore Grant Williams adding 16 to the mix and Robert Williams chipping in with 11. Robert, also known as ‘Timelord’, had a career high 15 rebounds in just 20 minutes.

The ever-reliable Semi Ojeleye contributed 12 points and eight rebounds on 60% shooting from downtown. Ojeleye is now up to 42.9% (6-for-14) shooting the three-ball this season, compared to 37.8% in the previous year.

Superstar duo Tatum and Jaylen Brown were absent for the majority of the fourth quarter, until the Raptors clawed the lead back to just ten points. The pair re-entered the floor and saw out the win which moves Boston up to fourth in the Eastern Conference.

The Jays became the first Celtics teammates to both score 200+ points in the first eight games of a season since Larry Bird and Kevin McHale in 1986-87.

Jaylen Brown will be disappointed to have missed out on Eastern Conference Player of the Week, being pipped by 76ers forward Tobias Harris to the award. Harris took home the accolade despite only averaging 23.3ppg on 57.1% FG compared to Jaylen’s 29.5ppg on 67.1% FG and 51.9% 3PT.

Boston stay on the road to face their next task, Eastern Conference champions Miami Heat in the early hours of Thursday morning.

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