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Tatum, Brown Make NBA History with Tandem Effort in Dallas

 

 

 

 

 

On a night that featured massive individual performances throughout the NBA, Celtics stars Jaylen Brown and Jayson Tatum linked arms and combined for one of the best tandem two-way efforts in league history.

In Philadelphia, Joel Embiid erupted for 70 points in a win over the Spurs.

In Minnesota, Karl Anthony-Towns poured in 62 in a loss to the Hornets.

In Phoenix, Kevin Durant put up 43 in a win over the Bulls.

All great one-man performances.

But in Dallas, it was all about the best duo in the league, as Brown and Tatum combined for 73 points in a 119-110 win over the Mavericks.

Tatum led the way with 39 points, 11 rebounds, five assists, three steals, and two blocks in 41 minutes. Brown was right there with him, tallying 34 points, three rebounds, 4 assists, and two blocks in 37 minutes.

The most impressive part of all? Neither of them committed a turnover, making them the first duo in NBA history to each log 30-plus points, two-plus blocks, and 0 turnovers in the same game.

Additionally, this game was on the second night of a back-to-back, following a 116-107 win over the Houston Rockets. And it came against a strong Mavericks team that entered the night with a 24-18 record, coming off four days of rest.

“This was a mindset game,” Brown said of the tough test on the road, playing on no rest and without Kristaps Porzingis. “We wanted to come out, play a little bit better than we’ve been playing before – even though we won the last game in Houston. We wanted to come out with the right mentality and the right mindset. So today we came out from the jump, and we were ready to go.”

Tatum came out hot from the jump with 13 points in the first quarter and turned in one of his best all-around games ever. He was nearly unstoppable inside the 3-point arc where he made 9-of-13 and earned 19 trips to the free-throw line, just one shy of his career high. He was a game-best plus-27 in a game that the C’s won by nine.

While Brown trailed Tatum by a small margin statistically, he ultimately faced a steeper challenge by having to guard Luka Doncic for a good portion of the game. Brown edged Doncic, 34-33, in the scoring department, but was also far more efficient; JB shot 13-of-22 from the field compared to Doncic’s 12-of-30 clip.

“I feel like I’m one of the better defenders in the league, if not the better defender in the league,” Brown said of taking on Doncic duty. “So it’s a challenge I felt like should be bestowed on me.”

On the other end, Doncic wasn’t quite as successful in guarding JB. That’s all we’ll say, but we’ll just leave this clip here:

The C’s also did an admirable job of limiting Kyrie Irving, who finished with 23 points on 9-of-20 shooting. In the end, Boston’s star duo dominated Dallas’ star duo, 73-56 in the scoring column.

“Those are two of the best scorers in the league,” Tatum said of Dallas’ backcourt pairing. “It’s a guard-your-yard thing; a prideful, defensive effort. We all had to be on a string together as a unit because those guys can score with the best of them. If you’re not careful, the game can get out of hand, but we did a good job just trying to make it tough.”

As we all know, Tatum and Brown can score with the best of them, too. They’re both capable of erupting for massive individual efforts, just like Embiid, Towns, and Durant did, but the Celtics operate at their best when the Jays are working as a one-two punch.

Boston is now 27-2 when both Jays score at least 30 points. And when they both play well at the defensive end, too, the Celtics are virtually unstoppable.

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