BOSTON — When Celtics guard Marcus Smart sees Jason Tatum leading the way against the Memphis Grizzlies in the fourth quarter on Thursday night like an All-Star forward, he says his approach becomes a simpler one.
"Make sure I'm staying out of his f---ing way," Smart said. "Let him do his thing."
Smarts and the Celtics did the same on Thursday night, as Tatum's 21 points on a 9-for-13 shooting in the fourth quarter was enough to overtake Grizzlies superstar Jaa Morant's 30 points on 10-for-15 shooting in the second half. , to lift Boston to a 120-107 win over Memphis here at TD Garden.
The win, Boston's 13th in their last 15 games, and one that moved the Celtics into fifth place in the Eastern Conference standings by only right, was one of the team's best wins of the season. Not only did the Celtics (38-27) beat one of the league's best teams in the Grizzlies (43-21), they did so with Jaylen Brown, who was sprained in the opening moments of Tuesday's win. Atlanta Hawks.
It's a win that Boston earned thanks to Tatum's heroics, as he went shot-for-shot with Morant and came out on top.
"It was a lot of fun," Tatum said of going back and forth with Morant. "The place was lightning tonight. I think it was one of those moments: Two guys just going at it, doing what they could to get their team to victory, and it just so happened that It was a back and forth thing."
Despite his seemingly ridiculous highlight of the night - a hand-all-up finish with Kyle Anderson on a fast break - Morant got off to a slow start as he went into the halftime break with just eight points on 3 . -14 for shooting. In the second half, things escalated quickly as he finished with those 30 points.
Morant did his best to get Memphis back into the game on a single night when the Grizzlies fought against the league's second-ranked defense. However, Morant didn't enjoy the fight in the same way that Tatum did - for one obvious reason.
"No," he said. "I wanted to win."
While the game broke down after Boston held a two-point halftime lead in the third quarter, this was largely done with Tatum as a spectator. This quickly changed in fourth, however, when he was going massive by attacking the rim, as he finished 8-for-10 inside the arc. His lone in the quarter made a triple, which came with 1:34 remaining to put Boston above 115-100, a celebratory point in the late game boom that saw the Celtics complete their season over the past several years. changed from. Week.
"I think, as a competitor, that's what you look forward to," Tatum said. "For someone you respect, who's doing big things in the league, you just want to compete. The fourth quarter is the time to win the game, and I just wanted to make the right game. Sometimes it's up to you, and Just try to get the job done."
Thursday's game proved to be a learning moment for Morant. Despite being a 6-foot-3 guard, Morant has been one of the league's best internal scorers this season, thanks to his combination of agility, speed and quickness. Boston was pleased that he closed in and forced him to take one shot after another from the perimeter. And, early in the game, both he and Desmond Bain, who combined to go 4-for-21 in the first half, fought hard.
As the game progressed, they both kept going, going 9-for-14 from behind a 3-point arc in the second half, and Morant said that when teams attempted to force him to shoot jump shots , so they're going to have a reaction to it.
"I shoot," said Morant. "They bent over, I shot the ball. I put in a lot of work, you know, shooting behind the arc. So the teams back up, go down, I shoot the ball, shoot it very confidently Shots begin to fall."
They fell repeatedly in the second half as they tried to get the Grizzlies back in the game. Ultimately, though, Tatum's response was too much for Morant and the Grizzlies to answer.
"That's going to be that," Morant said if Memphis did anything wrong while defending Tatum down the stretch. "We tried to make his shots as hard as possible, but with that kind of special talent, people find a way, pretty much.
"No disrespect, changing person, but also with me. I was shooting terrible in the beginning, I saw some move and shots started falling. Same thing with him. He was going, to his places. Got to where he was comfortable. On the floor and he hit some big shots to give his team the lead and come out with a win."
The win, which took place on the same day Celtics coach Ime Udoka was named Eastern Conference Coach of the Month for February, was the latest example of Boston's remarkable mid-season run. Sitting at .500 after losing to the Atlanta Hawks on January 28, the Celtics have since scored 13 wins in 15 games, moving the former to fifth and within four games of the top-seeded Miami Heat.
And while there have been plenty of reasons for change—from Boston's defensive improvement to the acquisition of Derrick White to Udoka settling on a narrower trajectory and the Celtics recovering—it also coincides with Tatum's better play, as well. That Memphis saw on Thursday night.
"I think seeing us now, we play with a lot more passion and we feel like we're having a lot more fun," Tatum said. "Obviously when you're winning you play with a little bit more enthusiasm and smile and laugh and stuff like that. It didn't happen often at the beginning of the season.
"It's basketball, at the end of the day, and it's supposed to be a lot of fun. And we've had a lot of fun lately."