Take a bow, Jayson Tatum! The Boston Celtics star was absolutely electric in a crucial Game 3 for the team, seemingly scoring at will on offense while locking up Kevin Durant on the other end. There's a very good reason why some old heads are saying that Tatum is surpassing KD right now.

Jayson Tatum finished his Game 3 masterpiece with 39 points on 13 – 29 shooting, along with five rebounds, six assists and six steals. That performance put the Celtics star in the company of playoff greats like Rick Barry and one Michael Jordan. Think those two are pretty good at this basketball thing. (via NBA)

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Tatum's brilliance has been one of the major factors in the Celtics' dominance over the Nets in this series. His scoring ability has never been in question: he's able to take and make the difficult shots in the clutch. However, the aspect that has put the Cs over their rivals is Tatum doing literally everything else on the court.

Whether it's creating shots for his teammates, pinging the ball around when the defense is scrambling, or locking up on defense, Tatum has done it all this series. The Celtics star's defense has flown under the radar over the last few years. However, this season, viewers got to see just how monstrous Tatum is on that side of the ball. He has made Kevin Durant himself look like a mortal: not an easy feat to do, mind you.

Tatum's excellence has the Celtics fanbase dreaming of a championship season. Who knows? A few more series like this, and we might see the Cs hoist their first title since 2008.