Jayson Tatum for the win: 3 great Boston Celtics takeaways vs Bucks

Three great takeaways from the Boston Celtics thrilling opening night victory over the Milwaukee Bucks.

While one emerging NBA superstar came through in the clutch, the reigning NBA Most Valuable Player did not as Jayson Tatum and the Boston Celtics downed Giannis Antetokounmpo and the Milwaukee Bucks 122-121 at TD Garden Wednesday night.

In a game that had to make Celtics fans both thrilled and exhausted, the final 8.9 seconds of the game of course came down to the dueling superstars.

After allowing a 17-point lead to evaporate, the Celtics found themselves down a point with the ball in Tatum’s hands guarded by the reigning defensive player of the game and Boston’s young star didn’t disappoint draining a three-pointer over the out-stretched arms of the Greek Freak to give the C’s a one-point lead with just 0.4 seconds remaining on the clock.

As clutch as that shot was, the Celtics did allow Antetokounmpo and Bucks a chance to tie the game on a foul at the rim, but Milwaukee’s big money star wasn’t able to convert on both free throws giving Jayson Tatum and his team a thrilling opening night victory.

In all, it was a win over a top contender that shows the rest of the NBA that the Boston Celtics are still a top dog on the rise.

"“We’re not always going to be perfect, but to come out and compete like we did tonight,” Tatum said following the game, via Celtics.com.  “If we control what we can control and play as hard as we can, if we win we win, and if we lose we lose, and you can live with that as a team just knowing you compete night-in and night-out.”"

Without Kemba Walker and Gordon Hayward not doing his thing down in Charlotte, it was an overall nice showing by a team that looked downright horrible in the two preseason games.  Here are three great takeaways from the game.