Boston Celtics enjoyed a perfect opening week in 2022-2023. The Massachusetts team is the leader of the Eastern Conference with a perfect 3-0 record (a mark they had not had since 2009-10) after beating the Philadelphia 76ers, Miami Heat and Orlando Magic. And a lot of it has to do with Jayson Tatum.
The 24-year-old forward is on fire, established for the moment as the NBA’s top scorer: he has an average of 34.7 points per game with 58.7% shooting from the field, 33.3% on triples and 88% in free throws.
In the entire history of the Celtics, a player had never scored more than 100 points in the first three games of the season: the closest thing to it had been Larry Bird with 96 points in the 1984-1985 season that saw him win his second MVP award of the three he won consecutively. Tatum left that mark well behind: he reached 104 units.
The NBA season has barely begun and Ja Morant has already added a record for history, at least for his franchise. The base, in his fourth year in the league, has started as a real ‘shot’. In his debut this season, he scored 34 points in his Memphis Grizzlies’ overtime victory over the Knicks. The ’12’ left him in nothing two days later, when he has placed the second best scoring record in the history of his team at 49 points.
Despite his good start, the Grizzlies will have to be more consistent in his scoring explosions to prevail at the end of the season against more constant players in this section such as Durant, Embiid, Jokic or Curry, among others.
Santiago de la Peña