On Sunday, the top-seeded Boston Celtics took the lead in their second-round playoff series against the Cleveland Cavaliers, with arguably the best team in the Eastern Conference playing up to it’s potential.

Outside of veteran center Al Horford, who scored only two points against the Cavaliers on Saturday, the Celtics’ starters came to play in Game 3, with four players scoring in double figures, led by the dynamic duo of Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown.

As usual, Tatum and Brown put on a show for Boston, with the duo combining for 61 points in order to eventually get the best of the Cavaliers, 106-93.

According to StatMuse, Tatum made team history on Saturday as he became only the third player in franchise history with 25 or more playoff games with 30 points, joining Celtics legends Larry Bird and John Havlicek.

Celtics with 25+ 30-point playoff games:

Larry Bird
John Havlicek
Jayson Tatum

That’s it. pic.twitter.com/CEpoKdVQqN

— StatMuse (@statmuse) May 12, 2024

 

Obviously, Tatum has joined some select company in the franchise’s history, but whether he can lead this franchise to an NBA title like Bird and Havlicek did multiple times remains to be seen.

The Celtics will play Game 4 at Rocket Mortgage Fieldhouse in Cleveland before the series shifts back to Game 5 in Boston at TD Garden, which could potentially be an elimination game if Tatum and company can come out on top on Monday.

The Cavaliers have proven to be more resilient than expected against the dominant Celtics, but Boston is clearly the better all-around team, which makes this series feel like it will inevitably come to an end sooner rather than later with the top-seeded squad advancing to the Eastern Conference Finals.

 

The Boston Celtics are right back on track.

Following their blowout loss in Game 2, Joe Mazzulla’s team got right back on it’s feet and took care of business on the road.

Now, they’re back up in the series and have gotten homecourt advantage back.

Of course, everybody talks about Jaylen Brown and Jayson Tatum whenever the Celtics win, and rightfully so.

This season, however, they have an X-Factor they hadn’t had in the past, a proven veteran with NBA championship experience who keeps everything in place on both ends of the floor.

That’s why, following the win, Tatum went out of his way to compliment Jrue Holiday, calling him their glue guy and praising him for the way he performed (Via Celtics on NBC Sports Boston).

“He’s the glue that keeps us all together. He does everything we need him to do, and he sacrifices a lot”

Jayson Tatum talks about the importance of having Jrue Holiday on the team 🍀 pic.twitter.com/7OXpAWZPtS

— Celtics on NBC Sports Boston (@NBCSCeltics) May 12, 2024

 

A lot of people talked about Damian Lillard joining the Milwaukee Bucks and the huge impact that could have on the team, and understandably so.

Nonetheless, other analysts claimed that Holiday’s addition could’ve made an even bigger impact, as he’s one of the best perimeter defenders in the game.

Holiday is an intelligent player who rarely makes mistakes or plays out of his lane, and while he’s not the savviest playmaker in the game, he’s more than capable of running an offense.

He embraces whichever role is given to him, whether it’s playing on or off the ball, not to mention his knack for knocking down big shots.

The Celtics have been championship contenders for the better part of this decade.

And while Holiday might not be their best player, he might be the most important one.