It was a horrible sight. A sickening sight, really. One minute Jayson Tatum was doing everything humanly possible to keep the Celtics from falling behind three games to one in the Eastern Conference semifinals. In a career already flush with big games at big times, this might have been his finest hour: 42 points, eight rebounds, four assists, four blocks, four steals.
Every time he touched the ball that Monday night, May 12, 2025, the crowd at Madison Square Garden gasped a gasp reserved only for a select few — for Michael Jordan, for Reggie Miller, for the regular springtime assassins who ruined so many playoff runs through the years. Tatum had been that good all night.
The Knicks led by seven, 111-104, but there were still more than three minutes left. Tatum had the ball in his hands. He passed off to Jaylen Brown, but it wasn’t a great pass. It led too much toward Mikal Bridges, and Bridges poked it away. OG Anunoby plucked the ball out of the air, sped in for a dunk, a nine-point lead, and sheer deafening bedlam at MSG.
But in an instant, the din dissolved.
