Historical Performance By Jayson Tatum

Tatum had one of the best scoring games ever by a Boston Celtic, torching the hometown Wizards for 51 points which led to the crowd serenading him with "M-V-P, M-V-P" chants.

WASHINGTON – The “M-V-P, M-V-P’ chants are nothing new to the Capital One Arena crowd.

They’re usually reserved for Wahington Wizards All-Star Bradley Beal who is among the NBA’s top scorers.

But on Sunday, the praise was instead for the kid Beal used to babysit back in the day in St. Louis.

The Wizards promoted Sunday’s afternoon matchup as Kid’s Day, so it was only fitting that the kid that Beal has known most of his life (Tatum), put on a grown-ass man’s performance in leading Boston to a 116-87 win.

The 23-year-old Tatum scored 51 points to become just the second player in Celtics history to eclipse the 50-point barrier at least three times.

The scoring on Tatum’s part was indeed historic with fans and teammates alike cheering him as he drew closer to the 50-point plateau.

Celtics teammate Josh Richardson, showing the scoring plateau (50) Jayson Tatum surpassed on Sunday against the Washington Wizards

Tatum's strong game also provided yet another tangible mile marker in his journey towards greatness.

And he will be among the greatest Celtics to ever play in Boston once his career is done with.

Part of that has to do with his growth, which was on display Sunday afternoon.

Tatum came into the game having missed his last 20 three-point attempts, the worst 3-point shooting slump of his career.

The great ones have a certain amount of irrational confidence about them, the kind of confidence that’s never shaken regardless of how they may be struggling.

Tatum has that kind of confidence, in part because he embraces the ebb and flow of being on the path towards greatness.

For fans, it can be somewhat annoying how nonchalant he can be after games in which he doesn’t score as much as fans expect, or he doesn’t seem overly concerned.

But the truth is, Tatum does care about those things and winning.

However, he’s slowly coming to the realization that the greats figure out sooner or later and that is no matter how great they are, there are certain aspects of the game they can control and others they can’t.

For Tatum, he is gaining a better understanding of how to be an impact scorer while trusting his teammates enough to come through when the opportunity presents itself.

In Boston’s recent loss to Portland, Tatum took a tough, contested shot in the game’s closing seconds that was off the mark. On the play, he had teammate Jalen Brown open long enough to where Brown could have probably caught the pass and made a shot attempt that would have had better odds of going in than Tatum’s desperation heave.

That too served as yet another teachable moment for Tatum who continues to show his growth into being more than just a young kid on the NBA come-up, but an established talent who, as good as he is now, has many levels of greatness ahead of him.

Here are the standouts, good and not-so-good, in Boston's blowout win over the Washington Wizards.

STARS

Jayson Tatum: There was no bigger star in the nation’s capital than Jayson Tatum on Sunday. He was so good, even his haters had to appreciate the brilliant offensive onslaught he put on the hometown team, all game long. Tatum finished with 51 points, the third time he has eclipsed the 50-point barrier. Only Larry Bird (four times) has scored 50 or more points more times than Tatum. In addition to scoring 51 points, Tatum also had 10 rebounds for his 15th double-double this season, in addition to dishing out seven assists while turning the ball over just once.

STUDS

Bradley Beal: Even though Bradley Beal’s St. Louis brethren Jayson Tatum was the man of the night on Sunday, that didn’t prevent Beal from putting in some work as well. Beal was filling up the stat sheet before finishing with 19 points, seven assists and five rebounds.

Marcus Smart: Making his return after missing the last six games, Marcus Smart looked like the time off did his body some good. He provided really strong play defensively as well as helping set up Tatum for a number of lightly contested to wide-open shots. Smart scored 11 points on 4-for-9 shooting, but more significant was how well the Celtics played when he was on the floor, which can be seen in his team-best plus-minus (+36).

DUDS

Kyle Kuzma: He has been playing some of his best basketball of late. But for most of Sunday’s game, Kuzma’s impact was limited to non-existent. He would finish the game with just 12 points on 4-for-11 shooting. He also finished with a team-worst plus-minus (minus-29).