BOSTON — Like nearly each child, Celtics star Jayson Tatum envisioned hitting game-winning photographs rising up.
However he undoubtedly didn’t dream of what occurred minutes earlier than he sunk a 29-foot, buzzer-beating 3-pointer to elevate the Celtics to a 126-123 additional time win over the Toronto Raptors at TD Backyard on Saturday night time.
The five-time All-Star had a picture-perfect likelihood to finish the sport as time expired in regulation. He misplaced his defender across the free-throw line, giving him a take a look at a wide-open jumper. However Tatum bricked a shot that hit all backboard.
That brutal miss might have made Tatum tentative when confronted with the identical scenario within the additional body, however he seized the second as an alternative.
“It felt good to lastly hit a kind of,” Tatum mentioned. “Clearly after the horrible miss I had on the finish of regulation, so it felt good to bounce again and hit the shot for the win.”
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Tatum didn’t want a pep speak after he failed within the fourth quarter to place the ultimate nail within the pesky Raptors. He knew that with the five-minute additional time, there have been extra alternatives for him to impression the sport and ship a win for the Celtics.
“I obtained numerous issues in life, confidence has by no means been one in every of them,” Tatum mentioned. “I work too exhausting at my craft, I performed an excessive amount of basketball to ever doubt the subsequent shot, whether or not it’s an in-and-out miss or whether or not I miss the complete rim. I do know what I’m able to and also you all the time imagine that the subsequent one goes in.”
Tatum hasn’t had too many moments just like the one he skilled towards the Raptors. He hit a game-winning layup with no time left on the clock within the first recreation of Boston’s 2022 playoff run. He additionally banked-in a 3-pointer over Giannis Antetokounmpo within the 2020-21 season opener — however there was nonetheless 0.4 seconds left after the ball went by means of the ring.
Tatum watched his basketball idol in Kobe Bryant ship buzzer-beating baskets and he is aware of he can’t shrink back from these conditions every time they current themselves.
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“I’ve by no means been petrified of the end result, good or unhealthy,” Tatum mentioned. “My favourite gamers I grew up watching had moments like this the place they made them they usually missed them. However they had been all the time keen to, no matter how the sport was going, be in that second. Be courageous, I suppose, in these moments.”
