Jayson Tatum's NBA Finals debut Thursday was a bit of a mixed bag.
The Boston Celtics star went just 3-of-17 for 12 points but made up for his scoring struggles by providing one of the best playmaking performances of his young career.
Tatum's 13 assists in the Celtics' Game 1 win set an NBA record for most dimes by a player making his Finals debut. Tatum also only turned the ball over twice in the contest and was a plus-27 in the fourth despite not scoring a single point in the quarter.
"I had a bad shooting night. I just tried to impact the game in other ways," Tatum said postgame, according to ESPN's Tim Bontemps. "We're in the championship. We're in the Finals. All I was worried about was trying to get a win, and we did."
Tatum averaged a career-high 4.4 assists in the regular season and has upped his output to 6.3 per game in the playoffs, which leads the team. The 24-year-old credited head coach Ime Udoka for turning him into a more complete player this year.
"That was kind of his message from Day 1, just to challenge me to be the best player I can be and improve other areas of my game," Tatum said.
He added: "Obviously, playmaking was one, drawing a lot of attention just to help the team out as much as possible. He's done a great job of challenging myself and just the group in that aspect."
Tatum and the Celtics will look to take a commanding 2-0 series lead when they take on the Golden State Warriors in Game 2 at Chase Center on June 5.
