God descended upon the Boston Garden on April 20, 1986. He wore white Nike shoes with trims and decals of blood-red; his jersey number was 23, and his historic 63-point performance somehow came in a loss. We don’t necessarily remember the fact that Michael Jordan’s Chicago Bulls were seeded eighth in the Eastern Conference that season. We remember that the top-seeded Boston Celtics won their NBA record 16th franchise championship just a few months after this game was played, but not that a 23-year-old instilled a dash of fear in their title aspirations when he forced them to take two overtimes to beat him in Game 2 of their first-round series.
Jayson Tatum’s historic 50-piece might have just saved the Celtics season
