Jaylen Brown and Jayson Tatum, Boston’s all-star duo, squared off during Sunday night’s NBA All-Star game and left plenty for Boston Celtics fans to be excited about.
Both players made appearances in the three-point contest before going their separate ways and guarding each other, in the night’s All-Star game.
Both Celtics men were the three-point contests first two participants.
Brown managed a decent 17 points before Tatum came in and set the bar putting up 25. After Bulls guard Zach LaVine posted 22 and Utah Jazz teammates, Donovan Mitchell and Mike Conley, scored 22 and 28 points respectively Brown’s night was over but Tatum had booked a place in the second round.
Curry then blew away the competition with 31 points and LaVine and Mitchell were out too.
The final round wasn’t Tatum’s best as he scored just 17, matching Brown’s first-round effort. However, it would have been hard to beat Conley and Curry who scored 27 and 28 points each, with Curry taking the title with his final shot of the night.
Despite not taking home any silverware, having two of six players in the three-point contest was certainly a win for the Celtics.
Then came the highly anticipated All-Star match.
Basketball fans from around the world tuned in to watch the game, including in Australia, where betting websites were pricing a Team LeBron win, for the fourth year in a row, at $1.61 (-165).
On the other side of this, Team Durant was paying $2.40 (+140) for the upset at Australia’s top bookmakers.
It wasn’t to be for Durant and his men though as they ended up losing the match 150 to 170, the moral being – don’t bet against LeBron.
Jaylen Brown was a main feature in Team LeBron’s win going on to score 22 points and getting five rebounds and two steals.
Despite being on the losing side, Jayson Tatum was also a key player for Team Durant and bettered his Boston teammate’s stats with 21 points, seven assists and four steals.
Perhaps more entertaining than the Sunday-night festivities for Celtics fans though was when Tatum and Brown went 1 on 1 in the first half.
The play shows Tatum egging brown on for a 1 vs 1 and when Brown drives, Tatum fouls him resulting in a call that Tatum wasn’t too pleased with.
The game was a special one for Brown, not only because he won the match, and the face-off against his C’s teammate but because he also got to play in his home town of Atalanta in front of his friends and family.
Tatum was also able to reunite with old friends, sharing the court with his St. Louis friend Bradley Beal. The pair started the game together and were announced alongside each other in the pre-match announcements.
Specific highlight’s that Boston sports lovers would have appreciated include Jayson Tatum’s massive dunk in the first quarter, Jaylen Brown’s assist, to himself, in the second quarter and his impressive turnaround three in the third.
Other highlights from the night that Celtics, and NBA fans alike, would have appreciated include Damian Lillard and Steph Curry’s numerous half-court three’s as well as Anfernee Simons’ near rim-kiss which won him the dunk contest.