BOSTON — Jayson Tatum made a statement for the Boston Celtics on Thursday night against the Minnesota Timberwolves. On a night when the Celtics didn’t have Jaylen Brown and Kristaps Porzingis for a tough road tilt, Tatum put up an MVP performance on both ends of the floor in Boston’s 118-115 victory.
Tatum was a magician on the offensive end as he flirted with a triple double, and he was in lockdown mode on the defensive end after taking on the challenge of guarding Minnesota star Anthony Edwards.
The NBA world loves Edwards, a flashy MVP candidate who can light up the scoreboard with ease. But on Thursday night, he was no match for Tatum. On a night where the Celtics made everything difficult for Minnesota’s star player, Boston’s star impacted the game in a number of different ways with relative ease.
Tatum finished with a game-high 33 points, nine assists, and eight rebounds, leading all players in all three categories. It wasn’t his most efficient night, as Tatum was just 6-of-17 from deep and 13-of-27 overall. But he took over out of halftime with 16 points in the third quarter, when he seven of his 10 attempts to give the Celtics a six-point edge into the final frame.
It didn’t matter who was guarding Tatum; chances are they weren’t going to stop him. Jaden McDaniels and Nickeil Alexander-Walker were no match for Tatum, and even Rudy Gobert was completely lost when he was unlucky enough to find himself on Tatum in a switch.
Jayson Tatum drives by Gobert for the slam pic.twitter.com/bz8kCAJYOj
— Danielle Hobeika (@DanielleHobeika) January 3, 2025
The Timberwolves tried to send double teams at Tatum midway though the fourth, but he burned them with his passing. A pair of quick assists to Al Horford (one for a three, another for an easy layup) pushed Boston’s lead to seven points with five minutes to play and forced Minnesota to throw that gameplan in the trash. Tatum dished out three of his helper in the final quarter.
Derrick White stepped up in place of Brown with 26 points (half of which came in the fourth quarter) and Sam Hauser added 15 in his spot start. But the win had Tatum’s fingerprints all over it.
“He did great tonight. His ability to execute, really just fight for the shots that he wanted,” head coach Joe Mazzulla said after the win. “Obviously he made some great shots.”
But Mazzulla was even more impressed with Tatum on the defensive end, as his star player asked to defend Edwards with Brown sidelined for the contest.
“I just thought his intentionality on the offensive end was really good. He started the night out on Edwards which is something that he wanted. I thought he took on the challenge of that,” said Mazzulla.
Jayson Tatum, Celtics stymied Anthony Edwards
While Tatum shined on the offensive end, Edwards struggled mightily throughout. And when Edwards isn’t going offensively, the Wolves have a tough time winning games.
With Tatum (and White at times) draped all over him, Edwards managed just 15 points off 5-of-16 shooting. He blew an open layup and missed a three with just over a minute left in an eight-point game, and then missed a clean look at a potential game-tying three at the end of the game.
Tatum and the Celtics made life miserable for Edwards by forcing him to go to his left. Mazzulla praised Tatum for taking on that challenge.
“That’s key for us to get to where we want to get to is him taking that on, so it’s a credit to him,” Mazzulla said of Tatum, whose three steals in the game tripled the total of the entire Wolves squad.
“It wasn’t a one-man job,” said a humble Tatum. “We upped our intensity and physicality just as a unit. Tried to make it tough on him. Didn’t want to play him one on one. Just wanted to show bodies and make it as uncomfortable as you can. When the best players in the league are comfortable, it’s tough so you’ve got to try things to throw them off.”
Boston’s defensive gameplan on Edwards completely took the All-Star out of the game, and was still in his head in the locker room.
“That was a good brand of basketball, but it’s not how I want to play,” Edwards told reporters after the loss. “I mean, I’m only 23. I don’t want to just be passing the ball all night. But the way they guarded me, I think I had to.”
Pretty much the entirety of Anthony Edwards’s postgame media was him talking about his frustration with the way teams are putting two on him, taking away his opportunities to be a scorer and forcing him to get off the ball.
“It’s not how I want to play, of course. I’m only 23, I… pic.twitter.com/7bJdFS6zeU
— Dane Moore (@DaneMooreNBA) January 3, 2025
How well did the plan work for Boston? Edwards said that his lack of scoring made it “super hard” for him to remain engaged in the game.
“It doesn’t take me all the way out of the game,” he said. “But it definitely frustrates me a little bit. Them doubling me, it’s like ‘bro, what is going on.’ Trying to figure it out, man.”
Thursday’s win was a great start to a tough four-game road trip for Boston, which continues Friday night in Houston. The Celtics won on a night when they didn’t have Brown, and on a night when the team shot just 22-of-58 from downtown — thanks to another MVP performance from Tatum.
The Celtics have now swept the season series with the Wolves, and given Minnesota’s star player something to think about if these two teams meet again in the summer.
Matt GeaganMatthew Geagan is a sports producer for CBS Boston. He has been part of the WBZ sports team for nearly 20 years. He moved over to the web in 2012 and has covered all the highs (and a few lows) in Boston sports.
