Celtics’ Jayson Tatum wins All-Star game MVP with 55 points to set record

Jayson Tatum stood out among the best players in the world Sunday while putting on a show at the NBA All-Star game in Salt Lake City.

The Boston Celtics guard set not one but two separate All-Star game records and was named the Kobe Bryant All-Star MVP after leading Team Giannis to a 184-175 win over Team LeBron.

Tatum put up an All-Star game record 55 points in the victory after heating up in the second half. Not only that, his 27 points in the third quarter, when he poured in 3-pointers from all over the court, was the most-ever by a player in a quarter.

“It means the world,” Tatum said on TNT after receiving the MVP award. “You think of all the legends and great players that’s played in this game. In all honesty, records are meant to be broken. So I’ll hold it for as long as I can, but I’m certain that somebody will come along in a couple years and try to break it.”

In what turned out to be a great publicity move, Tatum did all of that while wearing his new signature sneaker, the JT1s. Tatum said he couldn’t sleep the night before in anticipation of his sneaker dropping, and he delivered for the fans back in Boston.

Tatum put up plenty of highlights – and he even got a fun assist from Celtics’ teammate Jaylen Brown, who was playing for Team LeBron.

Brown and Tatum went at each other to end the third quarter, trading buckets and friendly taunts.

But Tatum stole the show with his MVP performance. After is big third quarter, he added another 10 points and six assists in the fourth as he played a game-high 35 minutes.

An assist goes to Celtics and Team Giannis coach Joe Mazzulla, who was willing to let Tatum’s hot streak continue as the shots kept going down. Tatum was 10-for-18 from 3 as part of the shooting display.

Local watch

Domantas Sabonis (Gonzaga), Team Giannis: 6 points, 4 rebounds and 1 assist vs. Team LeBron.