Celtics All-Star Jayson Tatum has earned Eastern Conference Player of the Week honors, the NBA announced Monday afternoon.
This is Tatum's first Player of the Week award of the season and it only took him 11 games since returning from a torn Achilles, but it's his 13th overall and he's now third on the franchise list trailing only Paul Pierce (17) and Larry Bird (15).
Tatum helped lead the Celtics to a 3-0 week over the champion Oklahoma City Thunder, Atlanta Hawks and the Charlotte Hornets -- averaging a near double-double over the three games of 25.7 points, 9.7 rebounds, 6.7 assists and 1.0 steals per contest.
Against the Hornets, Tatum finished with his best performance since re-joining his Celtics teammates, putting up a season-best 32 points on 12-of-23 from the field, including going 5-of-10 from deep to go along with eight assists and zero turnovers -- without Jaylen Brown and Derrick White in the lineup.
While Tatum is still shooting just under 40% from the field for the season, he made significant strides this past week, including playing about 34 minutes per contest over the past three games -- a steady increase from the roughly 27 minutes per game average he started off with following the return ftom injury.
The five-time All-NBA forward also become the youngest in franchise history (28 years, 26 days) to reach 14,000 career points last week -- passing Paul Pierce, who was 28 years-old and 164 days -- Tatum is one of only nine to pull off that feat in a Celtics uniform.
The Celtics, who won their 50th game of the season Sunday and officially clinched a playoff berth -- for their 12th consecutive season (current longest active streak in the league) -- are in the middle of a four-game road trip, as they'll face the Hawks once again Monday on a second night of a back-to-back.
Joel Pavón
No comments:
Post a Comment