One Possession: Jayson Tatum Dominating In The Clutch For Celtics

One Possession: Jayson Tatum dominating in the clutch for Celtics originally appeared on NBC Sports Boston

NBA Games don’t typically boil down to just one possession. But one possession can often tell the story of a game. This is “One Possession,” a recurring series where we highlight one notable sequence from every Celtics game during the 2026-27 season.

The NBA is filled with superstars. But maybe the defining quality of those that sit in the highest echelon of that term are the players that routinely thrive in clutch situations and deliver their team to victory in the moments of highest leverage.

With two weeks of the 2026-27 season in the rearview, Boston Celtics superstar Jayson Tatum leads the NBA while generating 21 points in the clutch — game within five points, final five minutes. He’s tied with Tyrese Maxey at the top of the early season leaderboard but that total only tells part of the story with Tatum’s late-game heroics.

Five days removed from hitting an overtime game-winner against the Nets, Tatum was back in his free-throw line extended office, delivering more clutch-time hoops on Sunday in Orlando. He twice buried midrange jumpers as the Celtics pulled away for their fifth straight win, a 108-97 triumph over the Magic.

Truth be told, the Celtics probably shouldn’t have activated clutch time against the Magic. A Tatum-less lineup had pushed Boston’s lead to 12 right before Tatum was set to sub back in late in the fourth quarter, but Orlando halved its deficit before Tatum finally got back on the court. 

With the Celtics clinging to a four-point lead with under four minutes to play, Tatum utilized a Neemias Queta screen to get to the same spot he hit the Brooklyn winner. This time he pulled up over Wendell Carter Jr. to put Boston up six with 3:41 to play.

That bucket knocked the game outside of the clutch-time parameters but Tatum wasn’t done making crunch-time plays. Tatum shuffled a step closer next trip down and, despite having Tristan Da Silva draped all over him, calmly knocked down another mid-range pull-up for a 101-93 lead with 3:05 to go.

Tatum then assisted on a Queta bucket and capped his fourth-quarter efforts by feeding Paul George for a 3-pointer that had Boston up 11 with 1:31 to play.

A fired-up George emphatically chest-bumped Tatum, then seemingly chest-bumped the entire Boston roster while navigating his way back to the bench following an Orlando timeout.

Tatum tops the NBA in clutch points having scored his 21 points over 15.4 minutes of clutch play (Maxey has 21 points over 19.3 minutes). Tatum is 8-of-13 shooting (61.5 percent) on clutch attempts.

His three clutch assists are tied for second most in the league behind only Joel Embiid (4). Tatum does not have a turnover in clutch time.

Tatum is simply doing all the superstar things to start the 2026-27 season. The MVP conversation is coming once there’s enough games to set the field. His playmaking has been elite and he’s putting up numbers comparable to some of the best point guards in the league.

Defensively, the Magic were 4-of-16 shooting when Tatum was the primary defender on Sunday. Orlando’s Franz Wagner was 1-of-5 shooting (20 percent) when Tatum was the primary defender, per NBA tracking.

Tatum is giving the game what it needs. But especially when it matters most.