80.8% effective field goal percentage<\/a> \u2013 the highest in NBA history. Effective field goal percentage measures shooting efficiency by adjusting for the fact that 3-pointers are worth more than two-point shots<\/p>\nAll-Star Jaylen Brown led the way, finishing with 28 points, nine assists and seven rebounds. But he got plenty of support from his teammates, with trade deadline acquisition Nikola Vucevic adding 28 points and 11 rebounds for his third double-double as a member of the Celtics.<\/p>\n
\u201cI thought we just did a good job reading the game,\u201d Celtics coach Joe Mazzulla said. \u201cI thought we made the right reads throughout most of the entire game. I thought tonight Vooch really looked comfortable in his offensive reads and his offensive screening. He unlocked a lot of stuff for us.\u201d<\/p>\n
All 13 Celtics players scored in the game, with Boston committing only three turnovers after halftime. <\/p>\n
\u201cWe just try to read the game and take what\u2019s there,\u201d Brown said.<\/p>\n
Boston, winners of five of its six games since the All-Star break, will now wait to see if Sunday night\u2019s home matchup with the Philadelphia 76ers will mark the return of Tatum. <\/p>\n
The game, originally scheduled to be played earlier in the day, was moved by NBC into an 8 p.m. primetime slot, creating speculation it could signal Tatum\u2019s plan to return. <\/p>\n
It\u2019s been 41 weeks since Tatum ruptured his right Achilles tendon last May in the waning minutes of the Celtics\u2019 loss to the New Knicks in Game 4 of the Eastern Conference finals.<\/p>\n
The Celtics are required by the NBA to release an initial injury report by 5:00 p.m. EST on Saturday ahead of Sunday\u2019s home game against the 76ers.<\/p>\n
After practicing with the Celtics\u2019 G League team two weeks ago, Tatum said he hadn\u2019t yet made a decision of whether he\u2019d return. <\/p>\n
\u201cIt doesn\u2019t mean that I\u2019m coming back or I\u2019m not, it\u2019s just following the plan. So it\u2019s just another step,\u201d Tatum said. \u201cI don\u2019t know percentage. I just know I feel a little bit better everyday. I just try to focus on that.\u201d<\/p>\n
Tatum said in the same interview that he is also mindful of not wanting to disrupt the progress of a Celtics team that at 39-20 currently sits in second place in the Eastern Conference standings.<\/p>\n
\u2019I\u2019m just hyper aware of what\u2019s going on. I think it would just stem from that. Obviously, I know what I bring to the table and bring to the team. But I\u2019m also aware that these guys have been playing extremely well,\u201d Tatum said. <\/p>\n
___<\/p>\n
AP NBA: https:\/\/apnews.com\/hub\/nba<\/a><\/p>\nCopyright 2026 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"BOSTON \u2013 The Celtics have been one of the NBA\u2019s hottest teams since returning from the All-Star break.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":629711,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[7,77,2675,6,3853,66],"class_list":{"0":"post-629975","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nba","8":"tag-basketball","9":"tag-jayson-tatum","10":"tag-joe-mazzulla","11":"tag-nba","12":"tag-nikola-vucevic","13":"tag-sports"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/116147375943697880","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/629975","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=629975"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/629975\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/629711"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=629975"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=629975"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=629975"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}