Karalis: Jayson Tatum knocking on the door of superstardom

Put a pin in this game.

When we go back through Jayson Tatum's career someday and pick out the mile markers of his career, this will probably be one of them.

“He was amazing again," Brad Stevens said after his Boston Celtics held off the Golden State Warriors Saturday night behind Tatum's 44-point outburst. "Early on we looked like we were moving in mud a little bit. But then he went to a different level and he was unbelievable.”

This game was Stephen Curry's at the beginning. He was on his way to another one of those performances that leave you slack-jawed and wondering if he's even from this planet. He was up to 14 points in the first quarter, the exact difference in the game at that time, but Tatum fired off Boston's next seven points to keep the game close.

Curry took the spotlight back after drilling a 3-pointer in Marcus Smart's face (his 22nd point of the night) to give the Warriors a 16 point lead with 1:24 to go in the half, but by the time Tatum had caught and passed him with his 23rd point, the lead was down to six.

No matter what Curry did, Tatum was there to match it.

"You can tell the game has slowed down for him, just in the way he picks and chooses his spots and how he manages the game," Curry said of Tatum after the game. "He's shooting the ball a lot better from the perimeter, but when that game slows down ... that's when you become lethal."

Lethal. That's what Tatum has become over his last 13 games. He's averaging 29.5 points per game in that span on 51.1% shooting, 41.6% on 3-pointers, and 91.3% on free throws. Tatum has never had a full month where he's gone 50/40/90. He's only gotten to 50% shooting in three other months, and one of them was earlier this season in January before he caught COVID-19.

He's taking six free throws a game this month, a big development for a player who has historically not gotten to the line very often. If you throw out his game as a bystander to Jaylen Brown's explosion against the Lakers (Tatum didn't take a free throw in that game), Tatum has gone to the line 8, 10, 8, and 16 times in the past week. That's a product of a more efficient, attacking Tatum who now puts up shot charts with a whole lot of green in the restricted area.



This is superstar stuff. Tatum looked every bit of Curry's equal, getting his buckets his way and carrying a team that had no business winning a game. It was the kind of performance that took the people involved and turned them into spectators.

"I'm in awe of what I watched tonight," Warriors coach Steve Kerr said. "It felt like a playoff game out there. Both teams were just gassed and competed like crazy, and just incredible shot-making, particularly from Steph and Jayson. So what a basketball game."

We tend to get caught up in the immediate gratification of sports. Nuance gets lost pretty easily. If one player can do something, the feeling tends to be that every player should do it, even though circumstances and individuality matter in looking at players.

It's a fertile breeding ground for paid opinion-makers to draw lines and make damning proclamations. Tatum isn't immune to this. No player is.

And so while Tatum was trying to get his points the same way it seemed Boston's season was going -- fading away -- the chirps for change were starting to emanate from that black hole for critical thought. Now, though, the conversation has to move in the other direction.

"That was a big boy performance by him," Draymond Green said. "Especially missing Jaylen Brown. He stepped up and put those guys on his back."

His back is broader than it used to be, giving him more room to shoulder the responsibilities of a superstar player. Tatum has always hovered around the edges of that label, but he hasn't quite been able to make it stick. But as he grows, so does his game.

"It’s incredible. It’s a good feeling to see, it’s a good feeling to be a part of," Marcus Smart said. "Just to see his development and see him continue to ascend into a great player, it’s definitely been a pleasure to be a part of."

Tatum is 23 years old, which is still ridiculously young. He's on a superstar run and it's helping lift his team from the edge of missing the playoffs to home court in the first round. If he can continue this run, Boston suddenly becomes an incredibly dangerous team. If he does continue this run, then he become more than just a young star.

Tatum becoming a true superstar changes the Celtics' future. He and Brown suddenly become one of the league's most dangerous duos with the potential to add to Boston's banner count. And there's no better validation of one's ascension into that realm than the acknowledgement from someone already there.

Tatum and Curry embraced and shared their moment after the game. It felt like another "welcome to the club" kind of moment. First it was LeBron James. Now it's Curry.

"Just mutual respect," Tatum said of the moment. "I was glad that we got the win, but obviously he’s one of the all-time greats. Just to earn his respect and get a win on the same night, it was a good night.”