Childhood Friends Tatum, Beal Excited for Play-In Battle

Childhood friends Jayson Tatum and Bradley Beal have cherished every head-to-head matchup of their NBA careers, but Tuesday night’s meeting will be their most anticipated battle to date.

For the first time in their lives, the St. Louis natives will be pitted against each other in a postseason duel under the NBA’s new play-in format, as Tatum’s seventh-place Celtics will play host to Beal’s eighth-place Wizards.

The winner of the matchup will lock up the Eastern Conference’s seventh seed and a first-round matchup against the second-place Brooklyn Nets. The loser will be placed on the brink of postseason elimination, as it will host the winner of the ninth/10th-place play-in game between Indiana and Charlotte in a do-or-die battle for the eighth seed Thursday night.

With so much at stake, both Tatum and Beal are chomping at the bit to go at each other more so than ever before. And they can’t wait to put on a show for Boston, Washington and their hometown of St. Louis.

“I do love any time that I get to match up with him and play against him,” Tatum said Tuesday afternoon prior to tip-off. “Obviously this has a lot more at stake so I think this is cool. Everybody back home, they’re going to be tuned in watching the game. Everybody knows our relationship, and he’s obviously one of my favorite players. So this is a cool moment.”

It will mark the 11th duel between the two wings, dating back to Christmas Day of Tatum’s rookie season in 2017. Tatum’s team has won six out 10 thus far, although Beal has had the individual scoring advantage in every single matchup.

Their most recent meeting on Feb. 28 was their highest-scoring matchup to date, as Beal out-scored Tatum 46-31 during a 111-110 Celtics win. One week later, they lived out a dream by starting alongside each other at the All-Star Game in Atlanta.

Adding to the drama of Tuesday’s matchup is the fact that Beal and Tatum are two of the hottest scorers in the entire league over the past month. Since April 17, they rank 1 and 2 in scoring among all Eastern Conference players, with Beal averaging 32.4 points per game and Tatum averaging 29.4 PPG.

“We both want to win,” Beal said Monday. “We’re both playing at high levels now. It’s always fun. I’m always his biggest fan watching him grow in the league, to see his strides and where he’s going.”

But of course, both Beal and Tatum will put their mutual fanship aside Tuesday night, as they go to war.

“We’re very competitive,” said Beal. “That’s my brother at the end of the day. We love each other when we step off the floor. When we step in between the lines, he plays for Boston and I play for Washington. We’re still brothers, but we compete.”