Jayson Tatum makes unwanted history in Game 4

Boston Celtics forward Jayson Tatum.

Jayson Tatum was a minus-33 on the floor during Game 4 of the NBA Finals as his Celtics suffered a 122-84 loss to the Mavericks. The stat line meant that the Celtics star became the first player in NBA Finals history with two such outings in his postseason career.

Tatum's previous such game came during Game 2 of the 2022 NBA Finals when the C's endured a 107-88 drubbing against the Warriors. In that game, Tatum finished with 28 points, six rebounds and three assists, but his plus-minus was affected gratefully by a paltry third quarter in which the Warriors out-scored the Celtics 35-14.

Tatum played all 12 minutes of that third quarter and was a minus-21. He finished at minus-36 for the game.

Despite the 38-point loss on Friday night, Tatum — whose team leads the series 3-1 — sounded very upbeat about his team's chances to close out the Mavericks over their next three attempts.

"We can't change what happened tonight," Tatum told reporters. "We always say (whether) you lose by two or you lose by 30, they all count the same. But we do need to be better. We're not making any excuses. We need to be better, and we will. We will be better."

The star forward started the series as the odds-on favorite to win the NBA Finals MVP award. However, Jaylen Brown surpassed Tatum as the favorite following his impressive 30-point outing in Game 3.

Through four games of the NBA Finals, Tatum and Brown are neck-and-neck in counting stats, even though the latter has earned a ton of praise for his defensive prowess. While Tatum is averaging 20.0 points, 7.8 rebounds and 7.3 assists, Brown is tallying 20.8 points, 4.8 rebounds and 4.8 assists. As such, one or the other could seal the award with a big performance in Monday's Game 4.

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