The Celtics needed nearly all of regulation, but they finally put away the Pelicans in a narrow win in New Orleans. It was Jayson Tatum stepping up at the end as his jumper with 0.2 seconds left put the C’s ahead for good 118-116 over the Pelicans.
Tatum’s already hit big shots throughout this season and career. But with Friday’s game-winning bucket, he entered some rarified air from around the league. Tatum is now 3-for-6 on shots this season inside the last five seconds with an opportunity to either tie the game or take the lead, per NBC Sports Boston stats guru Dick Lipe. Those three makes are tied for the NBA lead along with Heat guard Tyler Herro, though he’s 3-for-8.
“There were 24 seconds left in the game, no shot clock,” Tatum told reporters in New Orleans. “It was all about just getting the last shot. Knew the matchup we wanted to get. Got our spacing right. It was all about just making sure we took the last shot.”
While Tatum has been criticized for missing clutch shots, he’s come up big a few times already this season. His Raptors game-winning 3-pointer immediately comes to mind from back in November. He’s also had signature moments, like the buzzer-beater against the Nets in Game 1 of the first round in the 2022 NBA Playoffs.
The Celtics needed every bit of Tatum’s 27 points Friday as the Pelicans refused to go down easy. Trey Murphy III caught fire as he hit 8-of-12 of his 3s to score 40 points. While the C’s created some distance throughout the fourth quarter, New Orleans just kept pressuring the reigning champions.
Fortunately, the C’s still came away with the win to improve to 34-15 on the season. Earlier this month, they nearly collapsed against this same Pelicans team due to clutch-time execution errors. But instead, Friday was about making shots at the end to secure the victory.
“I’m just glad we made enough plays down the stretch to win,” Tatum said. “Give those guys credit, they played great tonight. Obviously, Trey Murphy had a career night. They made it tough on us and they made us work.”
