What Jayson Tatum, Jaylen Brown will be doing at this year's NBA All-Star Game
BOSTON -- The Boston Celtics have dominated the NBA through the unofficial first half of the 2023-24 NBA season. Now Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown will once again look to dominate the league's All-Star weekend.
After leading the Celtics to an NBA-best 43-12 record, Boston's star duo is off to Indiana to do their thing throughout the All-Star festivities. Both will be partaking in Sunday's 73rd All-Star Game for the Eastern Conference, which will come after an eventful night for both on Saturday evening.
Tatum is off to All-Star weekend for the fifth straight year, while Brown is making his third All-Star appearance in the last four years. They both put on a show during last year's All-Star Game in Salt Lake City, Utah, as Tatum dropped an All-Star Game record 55 points to capture MVP honors and lead Team Giannis to a 184-175 victory. Brown wasn't half bad for Team LeBron, scoring a team-high 35 points to go with 14 rebounds off the bench.
They'll be teammates on the East this year, with the NBA ditching the All-Star draft format after last season, but will try their hand in some different All-Star fun prior to Sunday's game.
Saturday night: Jayson Tatum, Guest Analyst
Tatum isn't a super talkative guy. He's one of the most soft-spoken stars in the NBA, unless you're an official on the court. Tatum usually saves his best analysis -- or rather, trash talk -- for social media. And it's usually aimed at teammates or friends (or Grant Williams).
But on Saturday night, he'll lend his voice as a guest analyst on an alternate broadcast of the 3-Point Contest (known as the "Access 23 Jordan Brand ALTCAST") on truTV and Max, according to Richard Deitsch of The Athletic. Tatum will be alongside Vince Carter, Carmelo Anthony, and host Adam Lefkoe, for the 3-point extravaganza, and will also give his analysis during the Steph Curry vs. Sabrina Ionescu 3-Point battle.
Tatum wouldn't be our first choice as a guest analyst, but there's a good chance that he'll really open up when sharing a broadcast desk with the likes of Carter and Anthony. And hopefully he complains about teammate Sam Hauser (who has knocked down 41 percent of his threes so far this season) not being in the contest throughout the evening.
Tatum has been a participant in the 3-Point Contest twice, coming in third in 2021 and tied for fourth last year.
Saturday night: Jaylen Brown tries to become a Dunk King
We've seen Jaylen Brown throw down some seriously ferocious dunks this season. He's either extremely been angry at the rim or set on ripping the soul out of a would-be defender, or in several instances, a little bit of both.
If the NBA still printed dunk posters, Brown would have several worthy candidates from the first half of the season. (Have they figured out how to make GIF posters yet? Those would be awesome.)
Who knows what Brown has planned for Saturday night's dunk contest. Hopefully he brings out a bunch of brave volunteers and dunks over all of them. And with Tatum on the desk a few feet away, maybe he'll make an appearance too. Perhaps even Deuce will get in on the fun.
Whatever Brown goes with, it's going to be emphatic and it's going to rock the rims in Indy. Just please, please, please don't get hurt.
Brown is only the fifth Celtics player to partake in the Dunk Contest and is looking to become just the third Boston player to win it after Dee Brown (1991) and Gerald Green (2007) dunked their ways to a crown.
Sunday night: Tatum, Brown look to dominate All-Star Game -- again
The Jays were on different teams last year, giving Boston's star duo a chance to go head-to-head and dominate the game for their respective squads. Tatum was unreal for Team Giannis, scoring more points than anyone ever has in an All-Star Game before. It resulted in him getting the first-ever Kobe Bryant All-Star MVP trophy, which obviously meant quite a bit to Tatum, who grew up a massive fan of Bryant.
Tatum scored 38 of his 55 points in the second half last year, and 27 of those points in the third quarter alone. He barely missed, going 22 for 31 from the floor, and hit 10 of his 18 3-pointers, including nine of 14 in the third quarter.
He was absolutely electric, as was a masked-Brown, who made things interesting for Team Durant by scoring 13 of his 35 points in the fourth quarter. Brown was 10-for-16 in the second half, scoring 22 points after the break.
They'll both represent the East on Sunday night, with Tatum in the starting five and Brown set to come off the bench again. Expect more All-Star fireworks from The Jays this year.
And Deuce too. Of course he'll be there as well, and will probably have plenty of 7-year-old trash talk for anyone not representing the Boston Celtics.
After their All-Star Weekend fun, Tatum and Brown will return to the Celtics, who start the "second half" of the season with a pair of road games: at Chicago next Thursday night and at New York a week from Saturday.
