Coming off a third straight loss, fans were curious to how well the Boston Celtics would respond in their next game. Matched up against the New Orleans Pelicans, the Celtics responded and they responded in a big way led by Jayson Tatum.

Scoring a season-high 140 points, the Celtics were led by third-year player Jayson Tatum. Tatum and the Celtics, in general, have struggled with consistency. Saturday just so happened to be a career-night for the young Celtics star.

Tatum exploded for a career-high 41 points in Boston's 35-point win. The 6-foot-8 forward shot 16-22 from the field and 6-9 from beyond the arc. Tatum also added six rebounds, four assists, and three steals. Added to Tatum's career-night, Enes Kanter dropped 22 points and 19 rebounds and Gordon Hayward added 19 points on 8-of-11 shooting.

Tatum eclipsed his previous career-high of 39 which Tatum dropped against the Charlotte Hornets in December. There is an additional context that made his career-day even more impressive. He dropped the 41-point total in just three quarters after coming off a performance where he shot just 4-of-13 from the floor with four turnovers.

For the season, the Celtics star is averaging a career-best 20.8 points per game and 6.9 rebounds on 42/35/86 shooting splits. Expectations have been sky high for the former Duke star since he was drafted with the third overall pick in the 2017 NBA draft. Jayson Tatum is vying for his first All-Star game appearance alongside teammate Jaylen Brown.

With the win, Boston snaps its three-game losing streak and improves to 26-11 on the season. The win puts the Celtics just half a game behind the Miami Heat for the second seed in the East and 6.5 games behind the Milwaukee Bucks.