He had 25 points by halftime, mostly by aggressively driving to the basket.

After three consecutive games of starting poorly, he shed his struggles with a dominant first half. “It’s a game of ups and downs,” Smart said. When the Celtics won even when he wasn’t at his best, Sunday’s performance was almost inevitable. Tatum had been struggling, but he kept the belief in himself. This is something I’ve been doing since I was a kid.” At the end of the day, this is basketball. And that’s when I play my best – when I’m having fun. pregame, I was relaxed, laughing, joking. “I was too tight, just too in my own head thinking about, ‘What do I need to do? How many points do I gotta score?’ You know, this is a big moment. “I think going into Game 6, I was too, it sounds crazy, I was like too locked-in,” Tatum said. And the way he closed out Game 6 provided some relief.

He leaned on the encouragement from his teammates.

Tatum stayed engaged on both ends through the struggles. He scored 16 points in the fourth quarter to will them to a Game 6 win in Philadelphia before Sunday’s historic afternoon. But he delivered when the Celtics needed their superstar most. He had a dud in Game 2, though it didn’t matter. While Tatum may have been the reason why the Celtics ultimately pulled through against the Sixers, it was far from Tatum’s best series. The Celtics, after another challenging series and erasing a 3-2 hole against the Sixers, will host Game 1 of the Eastern Conference Finals against the Miami Heat on Wednesday night.

Who won eastern conference finals