The Boston Celtics refused to be swept away by the Brooklyn Nets as they claimed a comeback win of 125-119 at TD Garden on Friday, leaving the Nets 2-1 up in the series. 

Jayson Tatum scored a playoff career-high 50 points for the Celtics. He's the sixth player in franchise history to get 50+ points in the post season. The highest record (54) was kept by John Havlicek. Meanwhile, Tatum's performance was at the age of 23 years and 86 days, making him the third-youngest after Rick Barry and Michael Jordan.

"It's just one of those nights. Trying to protect home court, trying to get a win at all costs. Sometimes, nights like these are needed," Tatum said after the game.

Doing what Tatum did is much more difficult than it sounds. Having gone 16-30 on the field, 5-11 from downtown and 13-15 at the free throw line, Tatum almost turned every mismatch opportunity he got into offensive proceeds. Moreover, he made those jumpers even in front of Kevin Durant.

"Just make a play. Obviously, I know I had it going but just trying to see where the help was, somebody was coming, find an open man. In those situations, just make the right play," Tatum, who also delivered seven assists, said.

Tatum's teammates also made remarkable contributions to the valuable victory at home. Marcus Smart and Evan Fournier together drained nine triples. Tristan Thompson had a double-double of 19 points and 13 rebounds, nine of which were on the offensive glass. He's still a defensive liability but Thompson nailed it at what he could do.

Unfortunately, none of the above had much to do with Kemba Walker who 3-14 in field goals and missed all seven attempts on the 3-point line to get only six points.

Despite the loss, the Nets did not seem to panic. James Harden put down 41 points, seven rebounds and 10 assists while Kevin Durant had 39 points and nine rebounds. Nonetheless, their efforts were not good enough to cover the damage caused by Kyrie Irving's underperformance of 6-17 on the field.

Friday's game also exposed other problems of the Nets. Their undersized lineup plus the defensive intention of switching everything made the team vulnerable in front of explosive isolation scorer. It's hard for Tatum to keep scoring 50+points in every game, but the teams the Nets will meet later have more than just one Tatum.

Los Angeles Clippers 118-108 Dallas Mavericks (1-2)

Like the Celtics, the Clippers also held themselves back from the edge of the cliff thanks to a comeback win. They trailed by 30-11 at 4:39 in the first quarter, but launched a 107-78 in the rest of the game.

Coach Tyronn Lue only gave Ivica Zubac 11 minutes on the floor and not even one second in the last quarter. Patrick Beverley only received five minutes off the bench. Since Serge Ibaka sat on the road game because of back injury, the Clippers kept a truly small-squad in which Marcus Morris played as center on the court for quite a long time.

None of the above arrangements kept Luka Doncic from dropping 44 points, nine rebounds and nine assists. But Morris went 3-5 in triples. Reggie Jackson, who replaced Beverley in the starting squad and most of his time in rotation, was 4-10 from the arc. Shooting 13-31 is not the best the Clippers could do, but at least their role players began to do their job.

Having others to share their burden is very important to Kawhi Leonard and Paul George who scored 65 points, 15 rebounds and seven assists for the Clippers at American Airlines Center. As a result, the two had enough strength to challenge the Mavericks in the paint and got 26 points there.

Friday's game revealed one fact to the Clippers: Though the Mavericks have a 2.21-meter-tall Kristaps Porzingis under the rim, his defensive and rebounding power are much less terrifying than he seems. The Clippers scored 46 points in total in the paint, almost twice that of the Mavericks (24). Porzingis only shot once under the rim and grabbed no more than three rebounds. If he continues to shoot like he did on Friday (3-10 on the field and 2-6 in triples), the Mavericks are in serious trouble.

Scoring 44 points is a new career high for Doncic in the playoffs. He has put down 275+ points, 75+ rebounds and 75+ assists in the first nine postseason games of his career – no one has done that before in league history.

Unfortunately, the Mavericks wasted Doncic's efforts at home on Friday.

New York Knicks 94-105 Atlanta Hawks (1-2)

After the first two games of the series at Madison Square Garden, Trae Young said he really looked forward to returning home for Game 3 and Game 4. The 22-year-old did not let fans down at State Farm Arena on Friday as he led the Hawks to victory with 21 points and 14 assists.

For the first time in his career, Young delivered 10 assists without committing any turnover in a half of a game. The last one to get 10 assists in a half of a playoff game was Rajon Rondo in 2008. Furthermore, Young also became the fifth player in history to average 25 points and 10 assists in his first three playoff games. The other four are Kevin Johnson. Chris Paul, Stephen Curry and Oscar Robertson.

Despite their NBA-top defense, the Knicks had no solution to Young. In Friday's game, Young made the Knicks' defenders even more uncomfortable by finding Clint Capela under the rim for easy baskets. Capela, who scored nine and four points in the first two games respectively, had a double-double of 13 points and 12 rebounds at home. While he grew happier offensively, Capela became more passionate on defense, which was one of the reasons for Julius Randle's 2-15 performance in field goals.

What's even more lethal for the Knicks was that the Hawks' shooters began to find their target back. Bogdan Bogdanovic, Danilo Gallinari and Kevin Hueter went 10-12 together from downtown.

No defense could cover everything, but when a team's defense was stabbed through in both the paint and the 3-point line, they had no chance to win any game.

Derrick Rose again became a lone fighter, putting down 30 points, six rebounds and five assists. He was elbowed in the face by DeAndre Hunter in the last minute. That looked painful physically but watching his teammates shoot 16-59 on the field and losing probably hurt even more mentally to the former Youngest NBA MVP.