Jayson Tatum wasn’t on the floor for the Boston Celtics in their win over the Atlanta Hawks in the regular-season finale Sunday at TD Garden.
Despite getting additional rest in the lead-up to the playoffs, the superstar forward still made franchise history.
Tatum finished the regular season scoring 30.1 points per game, making him the first player ever in the renowned history of the Celtics to average 30-plus points per game.
It’s quite an illustrious feat given that Larry Bird, Bill Russell and Paul Pierce among other Celtics greats never reached that milestone mark. And Tatum seemed a little taken aback by his accomplishment.
“Now this is something,” Tatum tweeted following Boston’s 120-114 win in which none of the Celtics regulars played.
The 25-year-old Tatum placed sixth in the entire NBA in scoring average this season, but he led the league in total points with 2,225 since most other stars played around 65 games and Tatum suited up for 74.
Eleven times this season Tatum notched 40 or more points in a game, which tied Bird for the most 40-point games in a single season in franchise history. The high-water mark for Tatum came in mid-January, when he poured in 51 points on 65.2% shooting in a double-digit win on the road against the Charlotte Hornets.
Tatum will now try to replicate that offensive production in the playoffs as the Celtics look for a return trip to the NBA Finals. Boston, which is locked into the No. 2 seed, awaits in the first round the winner of the play-in tournament matchup between the Miami Heat and Atlanta Hawks.
