Former Duke basketball star [autotag]Jayson Tatum[/autotag] will play in his fifth Eastern Conference Finals in seven years with the Boston Celtics.
Tatum scored 25 points on 9/16 shooting and added 10 rebounds and nine assists during Wednesday night’s victory to close out the Cleveland Cavaliers in the second round of the NBA playoffs. He scored 33 points in back-to-back appearances in Game 3 and Game 4 to help Boston win the final three games of the series.
For the five-game series, the former Blue Devil averaged 26.8 points, 10.4 rebounds, and 6.2 assists per game.
Boston also beat the Miami Heat in five games during the opening round, again losing Game 2 but sweeping the rest. Tatum averaged 21.8 points, 10.4 rebounds, and 5.4 assists across that opening series.
So far in his 10 games this postseason, Tatum has eight double-doubles, one triple-double, and two 30-point games.
Tatum and Boston made the NBA Finals once so far in his career, a six-game defeat at the hands of the Golden State Warriors and Steph Curry in 2022. The Celtics await the winner of the New York Knicks and Indiana Pacers, which the Knicks currently lead 3-2 as of Thursday morning.