Jayson Tatum calls himself ‘one of the best basketball players in the world’ after awful first half

Boston Celtics superstar Jayson Tatum had a sweet and simple explanation for how he was able to turn his game around after a dreadful first half in Game 6 against the Philadelphia 76ers.

‘Humbly, I’m one of the best basketball players in the world,’ Tatum said to answer a question about how he kept his confidence in the fourth quarter.

‘I got some great teammates that held it down. (Malcolm) Brogdon, JB (Jaylen Brown), (Marcus) Smart, Al (Horford), they all trust me. They all tell me, “keep taking great looks, it’s gonna fall. Keep impacting the game in other ways”.’

Tatum, who averaged 30.1 points in the regular season, never stopped shooting even as the misses kept coming. 

He missed 14 of his first 15 shots overall from the floor and his ineffectiveness was a key reason the Celtics couldn’t hold a 16-point lead early on.

He missed 14 of his first 15 shots overall from the floor as he was incredibly ineffective early 

Marcus Smart saved the day by leading Boston with 22 points as Tatum struggled shooting

Tatum missed all 10 shots, including five 3-point attempts, in the first half as the Celtics led by seven at the intermission.

He ended up scoring a total of 19 points on 5-21 shooting from the field, including 4-11 from three-point range and 5-5 from the foul line.

Despite Tatum’s late game resurgence, Marcus Smart was the true star of the night as he led the team with 22 points to pick up the slack from the misfiring duo of Tatum and Brown.

Smart shot 8-15 from the field, 3-8 from deep, and 3-4 from the foul line.

Boston went on to win the game 95-86 and extent the series to what will be a hard-fought battle for in Game 7.