Jayson Tatum was everywhere for the Boston Celtics in an exciting 88-87 win over the Philadelphia 76ers.
He scored 26 points in the victory, including 11 in the fourth quarter, rounding out the double-double with a career-high 16 rebounds as well as two assists and a steal.
Despite another slower night shooting, Tatum still can impact winning in other ways, and is happy to do so.
“I seen a report the other day that said I was a selfish player. That seems pretty unselfish of me,” Tatum said of his role down the stretch, in reference to a recent report from ESPN’s Tim Bontemps.
“But you know, whatever it takes for us to win. You know, I guess more often than not, it’s gonna be in my hands. But we play 82-something games in the regular season. There’s gonna be certain nights where you might need to space the floor, take the best defender away out (of) the action and see what we get.”
The report certainly didn’t quite add up with Tatum’s play of late, as we’ve seen him fit in well within the Celtics’ offense instead of on his own.
He had a hunch about the anonymous source who made the comments to ESPN, though, jokingly calling out Abby Chin of NBC Sports Boston.
“They said you said it, Abby.”
