Tatum Tips Off Season With Player of the Week Win
There’s no sign of any post-championship complacency for Jayson Tatum. The veteran wing is off to the best start of any Eastern Conference player this season, and he was recognized by the NBA accordingly Monday afternoon, earning the first EC Player of the Week Award for the 2024-25 season.
It’s the 11th time in his career that Tatum has achieved the honor, placing him third on the Celtics’ all-time list of winners behind Paul Pierce (17) and Larry Bird (15). At age 26, Tatum is well on his way toward smashing that record.
It’s also the third consecutive campaign in which Tatum was named East Player of the Week within the season’s first two weeks. He won it in Week 2 last season and in Week 1 the season before.
Tatum led the East in scoring with 33.0 points per game. He also grabbed 6.3 rebounds, handed out 6.0 assists, and snagged 1.3 steals per contest, while leading the Celtics to a perfect 3-0 mark with wins over New York, Washington, and Detroit, respectively. He shot 54.7 percent from the field and 48.6 percent from deep while making a league-leading 5.7 threes per game.
Tatum’s 17 makes from long distance were a Celtics record-smashing feat. Previously, no other player in the team’s history had made more than 12 through the first three games of a season.
Now, let’s take a look back at each of those three games from Tatum’s standpoint:
Oct. 22 vs. New York
Tatum started his week with one of the greatest season-opening performances in league history while leading the C’s to a 132-109 victory over the rival Knicks. He took no time showing off his new shooting form, scoring 37 points while knocking down eight of his 11 3-point attempts. He made six 3-pointers in the first half alone, a feat that no other player in NBA history has accomplished in a season-opener. He also became the first Celtic to log at least 35 points, 10 assists, and a 75 percent shooting clip in a single game. He only missed four shots the entire night in a 14-of-18 effort. Not a bad way to cap off ring night.
Oct. 24 at Washington
JT followed his season-opening double-double with a double-double of a different type; this time, he did so with points and rebounds on the road at Washington. Tatum logged 25 points, 11 rebounds, and six assists all in 29 minutes, as the C’s blew out the Wizards, 122-102 for their second straight 20-point win. It wasn’t quite the scoring night he had in Game 1 from an efficiency standpoint, but it was still a well-rounded effort – had he played his usual minutes, he likely would have turned that double-double into a triple-double.
Oct. 26 at Detroit
Mirroring his Game 1 scoring effort, Tatum closed out his week with another 37-point performance – this time in a 124-118 victory at Detroit. JT made 6-of-13 from long distance, giving him 17 treys on the week. He also committed just one turnover for the third straight game. Tatum finished the week with 99 points, which is the second-highest point total by a Celtic through the first three games of a season. The only other player to score more was the 2022-23 version of Jayson Tatum, who scored 104 points during such a span before also going on to win East Player of the Week.
