Jayson Tatum injury is Celtics’ biggest concern, but minds must be clear for Game 5

Sports

add

NEW YORK — Boston Celtics assistant coach Amile Jefferson stepped through a door in the team’s locker room late Monday night and walked toward Jayson Tatum’s mother, Brandy Cole-Barnes. Jefferson, one of Tatum’s closest friends dating back to their time as Duke teammates, reached out with one of his long arms and pulled Cole-Barnes close to him.

Some of Tatum’s loved ones wouldn’t normally be inside the Celtics locker room after a game, but an exception was made to comfort him after he suffered what the team called a lower-body injury late in a 121-113 Game 4 loss to the New York Knicks. His mother, stepfather Marcus “Jake” Barnes and trainer Drew Hanlen were all there to provide support.

As they emerged from a Madison Square Garden training room, where Tatum was apparently being evaluated, they looked tired, drained and concerned. Though several Celtics players and coach Joe Mazzulla said they didn’t know the severity of Tatum’s injury yet, before he was expected to undergo an MRI on Tuesday, the mood around the team painted a picture of pessimism.

Enough fear surrounded his injury that even his teammates were reluctant to check on him.

“He’s got people around,” said Kristaps Porziņģis, explaining why he had not seen Tatum yet. “It’s probably an overwhelming moment right now.”

Overwhelming for Tatum. For his friends and family. For everyone in the Boston organization. The Celtics entered Game 4 with hopes of regaining control of their second-round series against the Knicks. They left facing a 3-1 series deficit, their season on the brink and their future in jeopardy. While scrambling for a loose ball with about three minutes left, Tatum’s right leg gave out underneath him. After writhing on the court in pain, he was helped off the court by a pair of Celtics employees. ESPN cameras then spotted him with both hands covering his face while being pushed in a wheelchair through a Madison Square Garden hallway.

The Celtics’ hopes of a back-to-back championship likely burned down in their third second-half meltdown of the series, but they were far more worried about their teammate’s well-being.

“The loss is the loss,” said Al Horford. “More importantly, it’s Jayson that I’m worried about.”

Will Tatum ever be the same? If the injury is as bad as it looked, it could alter the outlook of his career as well as the course of the Celtics’ franchise. Win or lose the championship this season, they were already set to enter an offseason of uncertainty this summer. Keeping the current roster together would cost about $500 million, including luxury taxes. Inside and outside the organization, the prevailing belief was that the Celtics would need to undergo significant changes this offseason to avoid such an enormous salary bill.

Now, realistically, they could be without Tatum for all of next season or close to it. If he needs to miss that much time, it would make even less sense to spend all that money. How could an extended Tatum absence impact Al Horford, who is set to hit free agency after turning 39 next month? Or Jrue Holiday, who remains critical to the Celtics’ defense now but might be a step or two slower by the time Tatum returns to full health? If Boston can’t expect to compete for a championship next season, the team’s front office could consider an even greater shakeup than anticipated.

Nobody wanted to confront the enormity of the situation on Monday. Jaylen Brown, the longest-tenured Celtics player, said he wasn’t sure how to digest everything the injury could mean.

“I’ve got no words right now,” Brown said.

The Celtics were so silent while getting dressed that it was easy for anyone nearby to hear Porziņģis pulling facial cream out of his shower bag. It wasn’t their latest second-half collapse causing such despair.

“I think everybody’s concerned with Jayson,” said Brown, who was emotional at the podium. “I’m not sure how bad it is. Didn’t look great. But I think everybody is kind of more concerned with that.”

Tatum had been Boston’s iron man. Since the Celtics drafted him in 2017, nobody in the league has played more minutes than Tatum, including the playoffs. He hadn’t missed a single postseason game in his career before a hard fall in the first round forced him to miss one against the Orlando Magic. In an era of load management, his teammates and coaches all know him as the type of superstar willing to fight through pain to suit up on a random January night in Charlotte, never mind late in the fourth quarter of a close playoff game.

Seeing him helped off the court ripped a hole in the Celtics.

“He’s the type of guy that he gets right up,” Mazzulla said. “So, he didn’t. And we’ll know tomorrow exactly what it is, but yeah, it’s tough to watch a guy like him get carried off like that.”

For much of Game 4, Tatum did the carrying. His 11-point flurry over the final 1:44 of the first quarter gave the Celtics an early lead. On the final possession of that quarter, he dribbled off a screen to produce the matchup he wanted against Karl-Anthony Towns, then calmly bounced the ball between his legs. Tatum leaned forward as if he intended to drive, but that was only to keep Towns off-balance. Tatum, who already had drained two 3-pointers in the final minute of the quarter, clearly wanted one more. He started backpedaling before the stepback shot fell through the net.

For as many great games as Tatum has played in his career, he has rarely, if ever, been better than he was Monday. He scored 42 points on 16-of-28 shooting, including 7-of-16 on 3s. He grabbed eight rebounds, collected four steals and blocked a pair of New York shots. His performance brought back memories of his 46-point outing against the Milwaukee Bucks in 2022, when the Celtics were facing elimination in Game 6 of a second-round series.

Monday didn’t count as an elimination game, but the Celtics understood Game 4 could swing the series. Given the stakes, they expected a desperate Knicks effort. Tatum nearly fended it off.

As the Celtics’ 14-point lead disappeared, he fought against the tide. Late in the third quarter, he followed a Boston timeout by walking onto the court before anybody else on either team. The Knicks were within two points. The MSG crowd could taste a comeback victory. The Celtics were losing control of the game and the series. Tatum nodded his head up and down to the arena music. His gesture suggested he was prepared for any Knicks threat. As bad as things were starting to look for the Celtics, he believed he would rescue them.

Tatum nearly did. After the Knicks took a five-point lead early in the fourth quarter, he drove past Towns and spun home a layup. One minute later, Tatum flashed behind the 3-point arc to tie the game at 96. He followed that with another 3-pointer, which briefly put the Celtics back on top. They quickly fell behind again, but he produced another tie by spinning past OG Anunoby in the post for an and-1.

“I’m not going to lie, man,” Towns said. “Tatum was hitting some shots.”

Despite Tatum’s clutch shots, a Celtics loss already seemed all but certain by the time of his injury. Anunoby’s dunk on the play gave New York a 113-104 lead with 3:03 left. The Boston defense, stellar over the first three games of the series, could not slow down the Knicks after halftime. For all of the big baskets Anunoby, Jalen Brunson and Mikal Bridges hit during the fourth quarter, the most damning stretch for the Celtics came midway through the third quarter, when they had a chance to pull away.

After a Derrick White 3-pointer gave the Celtics a 72-58 lead, they committed three straight defensive mistakes against Brunson to let the Knicks back into the game. Out of a timeout, a defensive miscommunication left Brunson wide open for a 3-pointer.

On the next Knicks possession, the Celtics could not decide who was covering Brunson in transition. Horford eventually picked up the guard, but was not prepared and allowed him to score an easy layup.

One play later, Brown fouled Brunson on a 3-pointer, and the contact was upgraded to a flagrant foul. He made two free throws, and Bridges capitalized on New York’s extra possession with a jump shot.

In less than a minute and a half, the Celtics’ advantage dwindled from 14 points to five.

“It was terrible defensively tonight, to be frank,” Brown said. “Just no resistance.”

The Celtics did not have many lapses like that on their march to a title last season. Maybe their mistakes were a sign of fatigue. Maybe the mental and physical toll of attempting to repeat as champions became too much for them to bear. Maybe they were always destined to fall short this season, like every defending champion has since the Golden State Warriors completed a back-to-back in 2018.

Still, Game 4 brought more than a loss. It created a void the Celtics won’t be able to fill until Tatum reaches full health again. Their season isn’t technically done yet, but with Tatum sidelined and the Knicks ahead by two games, the end is likely to come soon.

Even the Boston players couldn’t downplay the difficulty of regrouping after an injury that looked so costly.

“No question about it,” Horford said. “It is an uphill battle. But for our group, we have to turn that page quickly and do our first job, which is to win (Game 5) on Wednesday. That’s the mindset, and as a group, we just have to rally together because, obviously, we’ve lost our leader and the guy that gets us going. We have to come together as a group.”

(Photo: Elsa / Getty Images)

This news was originally published on this post .

Share on

email

Previous

trending_flat

What are realistic expectations for Vikings QB J.J. McCarthy? What the history tells us

Sports

Next

Große Sorgen – Not-OP bei Ex-Bundesliga-Star

1. FC Union Berlin