Jayson Tatum is one of the frontrunners for the NBA’s Rookie of the Year Award this season. While he may not win it over Sixers star Ben Simmons, Tatum has been outstanding in Boston, giving the Celtics quite the scoring punch on the wing, averaging 13.9 points per game and connecting on 45.3 percent of his attempts from downtown.
On Saturday night, though, Tatum produced one heck of a highlight because of his ability to dunk. Tatum skied during Boston’s game against Brooklyn, throwing down a thunderous jam that made someone else on the floor look silly.
There was just one problem: Tatum did not dunk on a member of the Nets. Instead, the rookie sensation yammed all over one of his teammates: Celtics big man Aron Baynes.
Jayson Tatum stays in attack mode!#Celtics #NBARooks pic.twitter.com/SimfKQFDUF
— NBA (@NBA) January 7, 2018
This is actually a pretty impressive play by both players. Tatum was able to lower his shoulder and get by Rondae Hollis-Jefferson, while Banes did a good job sealing off Tyler Zeller and giving his teammate room to go to the rim without worrying about anyone on the Nets contesting his shot.
Neither guy expected that Tatum’s main opposition would come from his center, but hey, the ball managed to go through the hoop and he got two points out of it, so he won’t complain. As for Baynes, if he plays his cards right, maybe he can get a free meal out of this via Tatum or something.
