Jayson Tatum and his Boston Celtics teammates were not ready for their season to end on Tuesday night.
The former Chaminade College Prep All-American scored a game-high 33 points to lead the Celtics past the Miami Heat 116-99 in Game 4 of the Eastern Conference finals in Miami.
The Celtics entered the game on the brink of elimination as they dropped the first three games of the best of seven series to the Heat. Boston actually trailed 56-50 overtime, but it stormed back with a huge second half, led by Tatum’s 25 points. In addition to his 33 points, he had 11 rebounds and seven assists in 42 minutes. It was Tatum’s ninth playoff game with at least 30 points, 10 rebounds and five assists, which is second in Celtics’ history behind Hall of Famer Larry Bird.
Tatum had plenty of support as five other Celtics players scored in double figures. Jaylen Brown scored 17 points, Derrick White scored 16 points, Grant Williams had 14, Al Horford had 11 and Marcus Smart added 11 points. The Celtics were also on fire from 3-point range as they made 18 of their 44 attempts for 40 percent shooting from long distance.
Jimmy Butler had 29 points and nine rebounds to lead the Heat, who still hold a 3-1 lead as the series goes back to Boston for Game 5 on Thursday night. Tip off time is at 7:30 p.m. (St. Louis time). The game will be televised on TNT.
