Jayson Tatum leads the Celtics over the Hornets in preseason opener

In their first preseason game of the season in Boston, the Celtics managed to finish a comeback victory over the Charlotte Hornets with the final score being 107-106.

Jayson Tatum led the Celtics in scoring with 20 points in their 2019 preseason opener. Photo via Matt Stone

With playing time being pretty well spread throughout the entire roster, the team was lead to their win by none other than Jayson Tatum, who seems to be on the verge of a breakout season. Playing a total of 23 minutes, Tatum started for Boston and finished with 20 points on 57% shooting (8-14 fg) along with 4 rebounds, 3 steals, an assist, and a block.


When asked after the game, Coach Brad Stevens said the most notable element of Tatums' performance was his improved shot selection, which you can see here:

Brad Stevens on Jayson Tatum's shot selection: "I think he did a really good job. I thought he attacked when it was appropriate to attack. I thought he shot the three without hesitation.” pic.twitter.com/pcHcY9GWGA

— Nicole Yang (@nicolecyang) October 7, 2019

The rest of the starting five alongside Tatum included Kemba Walker, Jaylen Brown, Gordon Hayward, and Robert Williams III, who with the exception of Walker (12 points) all had a relatively low scoring night. However, like I said before the minutes were pretty well spread throughout the roster and it's not surprising for a team to take it a little bit easier overall in a meaningless preseason game.

The second-leading scorer behind Tatum was actually Javonte Green, who despite only playing 10 minutes scored 15 points without missing a field goal attempt (7-7 fg). As his spot on an NBA roster is in no way guaranteed for next season, I'm glad Green went out and made use of his limited minutes in order to make the best impression possible.

On the other side of the ball, former Celtic Terry Rozier scored just 9 points within his 22 minutes of play for Charlotte in his debut with his new team, though he did have a total of 9 assists on the night. It was forward P.J. Washington who led the Hornets in scoring, totaling 16 points in 19 minutes of play.

However, the bottom line is that Tatum looked pretty good in this preseason opener. Hopefully, he can continue to develop and reach his potential as an elite scorer in the NBA and aid in the organizations' efforts to reach their fullest potential as well.

What did you think of Jayson Tatum's performance last night??? Did you notice anything different or promising in his play??? Let me know in the comment section down below. And if you want to check out the full box score of last night's game, click here.

You can follow Thomas Desmond on Twitter @td_654.