Jaylen Brown snared a rebound off of a miss from Ja Morant and found Jayson Tatum in wide open space on the other end. Without taking a dribble, Tatum flew for a one-handed dunk, let out at a scream and pounded his chest with both of his fists.
In a back-and-forth game against another young NBA star, the play was the exclamation point as Tatum ultimately came out on top again. The Celtics star scored 39 points – which included 19 in the second quarter, as he outdueled Morant, who had 27 for the Grizzlies and brought them to the lead in the third. But the C’s held on in the late moments for a 109-106 win on Monday night in Memphis.
Tatum’s dunk put the C’s up 105-94 with 3:21 to go, but Boston went inexplicably cold offensively, and coupled with a few turnovers, let the Grizzlies back in it. Both Marcus Smart and Tatum missed two free throws in the final minute, and Dillon Brooks’ dunk with 17.3 seconds left made it 105-103.
