Jayson Tatum had what was easily his worst game in the NBA Playoffs thus far on Wednesday night as the Boston Celtics blew out the Philadelphia 76ers at the TD Garden, 121-87. The Celtics superstar got into foul trouble and never really got going in that one, finishing with just seven points on 1-of-7 shooting, to go along with seven rebounds, three assists, a block, and two turnovers in 19 minutes of action.

It's a good thing the Celtics still managed to win in spite of Tatum's poor showing. Otherwise, you can be sure that the four-time All-Star would have been much more heavily criticized than he was after his forgettable performance in Game 2.

For his part, Tatum knows that he has to do much better in Game 3 on Friday. The 25-year-old has now opened up about his 7-point stinker in Game 2 and how he intends to bounce back come Friday night:

“I only played 18 minutes so it was like a day off,” he said. “So, gotta stay out of foul trouble today.”

It's as simple as that. So long as he is able to stay out of foul trouble in Game 3, then we fully expect Tatum to make up for lost time in Friday's matchup. As he implied in his statement above, he got a bit more rest in Game 2 after playing just 19 minutes, so he must be feeling better entering Game 3.

With the series now tied at 1-1, the winner of Game 3 will put themselves in a great position to come out of this series. It's going to be in Philly, though, so you can be sure that the home crowd will play their part in this one.