Jayson Tatum Stats Tonight: Celtics All-Star dominates Milwaukee Bucks in return (March 20)

The Boston Celtics, featuring their All-Star Jayson Tatum, hosted the second-best team in the East, the Milwaukee Bucks, in a highly anticipated matchup. The two teams met for the third time this season on Wednesday. However, the Bucks were without their two-time MVP, Giannis Antetokounmpo, who was ruled out due to a sore hamstring, his second straight absence.

It was big for the Celtics, as the Bucks' defense couldn't keep up with the Celtics' ball-and-man movement, coupled with elite shot-making spearheaded by Jayson Tatum, Derrick White and Payton Pritchard in the first half.

Despite an early surge, the visitors reduced the deficit. Khris Middleton and Patrick Beverley led the offensive efforts for the Bucks in the opening quarter, but Milwaukee ended it trailing 33-28.

Jayson Tatum, following a 10-point first period, extended his scoring prowess with another 13 points in the second quarter, leading all scorers with 23 points at halftime. Middleton and Lillard collectively contributed 26 points, with Patrick Beverley adding nine points off the bench.

The Milwaukee Bucks kept the game in arm's reach despite going down by as many as 21 points following a strong fourth quarter to bring the game back to 107-110 before Tatum scored four consecutive points. Two of them came from the free-throw line, and in the next play, he scored over Malik in isolation, forcing the Bucks to call a timeout.

Despite the Bucks' 36 points in the fourth quarter, outscoring the Celtics by 15, they withstood that run to take the game 122-119.

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How many points did Jayson Tatum have vs Milwaukee Bucks?

Jayson Tatum had a standout performance with 31 points, eight rebounds and four assists with three steals and two blocks on 9-of-19 shooting from the field at 47.4%, including an efficient 4-of-7 from the 3-point range at 57.1% and 9-of-10 from the free-throw line at 90.0%.

He scored six points in the last three minutes for the Celtics, including four clutch free-throws. The Celtics All-Star crossed his player projections for points and rebounds, which were set at over/under 26.5 and 7.5, respectively. However, he fell short narrowly to cross the assists prop at over/under 4.5

Boston's victory propelled them to an 11-game lead for the No. 1 seed in the Eastern Conference with 13 games remaining. They are on the verge of securing homecourt advantage in the Eastern Conference playoffs, possibly during their upcoming road trip this weekend.

Following their win, Boston is set to embark on a two-week stretch away from TD Garden, kicking off a season-high six-game road trip starting in Detroit on Friday night.