{"id":122971,"date":"2025-02-09T12:57:24","date_gmt":"2025-02-09T17:57:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/?p=122971"},"modified":"2025-02-09T12:57:24","modified_gmt":"2025-02-09T17:57:24","slug":"jayson-tatum-top-10-celtics-scoring","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/2025\/02\/09\/jayson-tatum-top-10-celtics-scoring\/","title":{"rendered":"Jayson Tatum Moves Up the Celtics&#8217; All-Time Scoring List After Dominant Game"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>In a blowout 131-104 win over the New York Knicks, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/t\/tatumja01.html?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=lastwordonsports.com&amp;utm_campaign=2025-02-09_bbr\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Jayson Tatum<\/a> had one of his best games of the season, exploding for 40 points, six rebounds, and four assists. Notably, this was Tatum&#8217;s second 40-point game this season, with the first being a 43-point outing against the Chicago Bulls. <a  href=\"https:\/\/www.statmuse.com\/nba\/ask\/jayson-tatum-40-point-games\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Tatum<\/a> now has 27 career 40-point games. This was a statement win for the Boston Celtics, as the Knicks are just one seed behind them. The <a  href=\"https:\/\/www.espn.com\/nba\/game\/_\/gameId\/401704627\/knicks-celtics\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Celtics<\/a> have outscored the Knicks by a combined 50 points in two games this season.<\/p>\n<p>On Saturday night, Tatum moved into the Celtics&#8217; top 10 all-time scoring list. To say the least, this is an impressive accomplishment for a 26-year-old, especially considering the <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/2024\/07\/26\/ranking-the-5-greatest-boston-celtics-teams-of-all-time\/\" target=\"_self\">Celtics&#8217; illustrious history<\/a>. Before Saturday&#8217;s game, Tatum had 13,153 total points, which ranked 11th in franchise history. Tatum&#8217;s 40-point performance pushed him up to ninth in franchise history, surpassing <a href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/w\/whitejo01.html?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=lastwordonsports.com&amp;utm_campaign=2025-02-09_bbr\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Jo Jo White<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/c\/cowenda01.html?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=lastwordonsports.com&amp;utm_campaign=2025-02-09_bbr\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Dave Cowens<\/a>. Currently, Tatum, Cowens, and White are separated by just five points. Tatum&#8217;s running mate, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/b\/brownja02.html?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=lastwordonsports.com&amp;utm_campaign=2025-02-09_bbr\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Jaylen Brown<\/a>, ranks 15th on the Celtics all-time scorers list. Let&#8217;s explore Tatum&#8217;s recent achievement and his place among the <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/2024\/08\/27\/boston-celtics-all-time-starting-5\/\" target=\"_self\">Celtics&#8217; greats<\/a>.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\">\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"en\">On the night Jayson Tatum graduates into the top ten in Celtics history&#8230;let&#8217;s look at the eight names left in front of him.<\/p>\n<p>While taking a moment to realize on this list of basketball royalty&#8230;.only one, is still 26 years old. <a  href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/9LQZgyVKYS\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">pic.twitter.com\/9LQZgyVKYS<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Sean Grande (@SeanGrandePBP) <a  href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/SeanGrandePBP\/status\/1888477182298575071?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">February 9, 2025<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<h2>Jayson Tatum Moves Up the Celtics&#8217; All-Time Scoring List After Dominant Game<\/h2>\n<p>After the game, head coach Joe Mazzulla praised Tatum&#8217;s accomplishment and called him underrated.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI\u2019m happy for him. I feel grateful. I joked with both of them [Tatum and Brown] that, like I didn&#8217;t have that on my bucket list to coach those two guys. It just kind of happened, and I\u2019m really grateful that I get to coach him. I don&#8217;t take that for granted. But you know, that\u2019s big time for him. He does it the right way. So, for him to be able to accomplish that while focused on winning and being a great teammate is really important. And I think he&#8217;s still underrated. He&#8217;s one of the best players out there.\u201d <a  href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/JustinmTurpin\/status\/1888460828560531778\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Mazzulla said<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Mazzulla&#8217;s point about Tatum being focused on winning and being a great teammate is also crucial. Tatum has been the engine of Boston&#8217;s incredible success. Despite being one of the league&#8217;s most gifted scorers, Tatum has shown he can always make a winning impact with his defense, playmaking, and rebounding if he doesn&#8217;t have the hot hand.<\/p>\n<h3><strong>Tatum&#8217;s Place in Celtics&#8217; History<\/strong><\/h3>\n<p>Tatum already has an incredible resume and has established himself as a Celtics great. Of course, last season, Tatum helped lead the Celtics to their 18th championship and the franchise&#8217;s first since 2008. Additionally, during the <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/2024\/06\/18\/4-reasons-why-the-celtics-won-the-nba-championship\/\" target=\"_self\">2024 Finals run<\/a>, Tatum surpassed <a href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/b\/bryanko01.html?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=lastwordonsports.com&amp;utm_campaign=2025-02-09_bbr\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Kobe Bryant<\/a> for the most <a  href=\"https:\/\/sports.yahoo.com\/jayson-tatum-breaks-kobe-bryants-015341133.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">playoff points<\/a> before turning 27.<\/p>\n<p>In 2022-23, <a  href=\"https:\/\/www.statmuse.com\/nba\/ask\/most-celtics-points-per-game-single-season-players\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Tatum<\/a> became the first Celtic to average 30 points in a single season; in that same season, he scored the most total points in the league. With 13,153 total points through seven and a half seasons, Tatum is on pace to surpass <a href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/h\/havlijo01.html?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=lastwordonsports.com&amp;utm_campaign=2025-02-09_bbr\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">John Havlicek<\/a> as the Celtics&#8217; all-time leading scorer in his 15th season, assuming he stays in Boston. Tatum now needs 1,329 points to pass the legendary <a href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/r\/russebi01.html?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=lastwordonsports.com&amp;utm_campaign=2025-02-09_bbr\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Bill Russell<\/a> for eighth on the Celtics all-time leading scoring list. Ultimately, Tatum moving into the top 10 of the Celtics all-time leading scoring list is just the latest impressive accomplishment of his career.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Photo credit: \u00a9 Wendell Cruz-Imagn Images<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>In a blowout 131-104 win over the New York Knicks, Jayson Tatum had one of his best games of the season, exploding for 40 points, six rebounds, and four assists. Notably, this was Tatum&#8217;s second 40-point game this season, with the first being a 43-point outing against the Chicago Bulls. Tatum now has 27 career [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4779,"featured_media":122990,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"1","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1608,5,62],"tags":[798],"class_list":["post-122971","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-basketball","category-celtics","category-nba","tag-jayson-tatum"],"modified_by":"Eamon Cassels, Editor","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/122971","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4779"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=122971"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/122971\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":122992,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/122971\/revisions\/122992"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/122990"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=122971"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=122971"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=122971"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}