Boston’s Jayson Tatum plans to ‘just keep working’ as he, Celtics struggle early in 2021-22 season

The St. Louis native hopes to build on his 32-point performance vs. the Mavs.

Knowing Jayson Tatum, the Boston Celtics star would have preferred to still be in his early-season scoring slump if that had meant stealing the road win from the Dallas Mavericks Saturday night.

Instead, he helped his team claw their way out of a 19-point hole, putting the team mostly on his back in the absence of fellow All-Star forward Jaylen Brown. Scoring 32 points and 11 boards on 12-of-19 shooting and 6-of-8 from 3-point range, he helped put Boston in a position to win that a last-second miscommunication ultimately wasted. Even with the negative outcome, the St. Louis native was largely positive and seemed pleased to have shaken the funk for the night.

“I made some shots,” related Tatum. “I played better on offense.”