NBA recognizes Jayson Tatum’s strong start to the season
Jayson Tatum and the defending champion Boston Celtics are already winning awards and it’s only October. On Monday afternoon Tatum was named the NBA Eastern Conference player of the week for the first week of the season. Tatum and the Celtics are 3-0 to start the new season and Tatum’s impressive play on both ends is a big reason why.
Boston has looked the dominant force we all expected right out of the gate. Dismantling the new look Knicks on opening night. Then blowing out the Washington Wizards and holding onto a close one against the Pistons on Saturday night to move to 3-0. Tatum is averaging 33/6/6 through the first 3 games of the season. A mark only matched by one other forward in NBA history (Kevin Durant) through 3 games.
This is the 11th time in Tatum’s 8 year career that he’s been named player of the week. He now only trails Larry Bird (15) and Paul Pierce (17) for most by any Celtics player. Tatum has also won the player of the month award 4 times in his career a number he can hope to add to this season.
Boston is back in action on Monday night against another Eastern Conference foe in Giannis and the Milwaukee Bucks. The Celtics will look to move to 4-0 as Milwaukee played in Brooklyn last night against the Nets. Boston finishes out it’s week with a game in Indiana Wednesday night and then a back to back in Charlotte against the Hornets on Friday and Saturday. If Boston takes care of business this week they could easily move to 7-0 and take a very commanding lead early in the Eastern Conference standings.
Check out the latest episode of the Green Teamers podcast with James Stewart and James Scaramozzino every Sunday night reviewing the past week in Celtics basketball.