Boston Celtics star Jayson Tatum put on a historic performance in Game 7 of the Conference Semis finale against the Philadelphia 76ers on Sunday night. Tatum scored a career-high 51 points, becoming the player with the most points in a Game 7 in postseason history. He also led the Celtics to their fifth appearance in the East Finals in the last seven years.
Tatum’s teammate, Jaylen Brown, contributed 25 points to the Celtics’ victory. Meanwhile, the 76ers struggled throughout the game, shooting only 37.3% from the field collectively and making only eight of their 37 attempts from beyond the arc. Reigning league MVP Joel Embiid tallied only 15 points, while James Harden scored a meager nine points.
Following the game, Tatum explained the reason behind his emotional outburst in the third quarter, where he yelled, “this is my f—ing house!” Tatum credited the TD Garden crowd for providing the energy that propelled the team to victory.
“I got to give a lot of credit to the crowd. We needed that. This is probably the loudest the Garden has been in like a year. We fed off that energy. The energy that they gave us today really helped us. We’re going to need that the rest of the way. They feed off us, we feed off them. You could just feel it, the building was rocking, everybody was standing up, emotions kind of just got the best of me in that moment in a good way,” Tatum said.
The Celtics will now face the Miami Heat in the East Finals, marking the third time in four years that the two teams have met in the playoffs. The Heat, who are powered by Jimmy Butler, won their second-round series against the Knicks in six games. The Celtics and Heat faced off in last year’s Conference Finals, where Boston narrowly escaped with a win in a Game 7 on the road.
