Sports

/

ArcaMax

Celtics star Jayson Tatum doubtful for Game 2 vs. Magic with bone bruise in wrist

Zack Cox, Boston Herald on

Published in Basketball

BOSTON — Jayson Tatum has not missed a playoff game in his eight-year NBA career. That streak is likely to end Wednesday night at TD Garden.

The Celtics listed Tatum as doubtful for Game 2 of their first-round playoff series against the Magic with a right distal radius bone bruise in his wrist. He suffered the injury late in Game 1 on Sunday on a hard foul from Orlando guard Kentavious Caldwell-Pope.

Caldwell-Pope grabbed Tatum’s elbow while the latter elevated for a dunk midway through the fourth quarter. Tatum landed awkwardly on his wrist, and Caldwell-Pope was called for a Flagrant 1 foul.

Tatum remained down for an extended period and was briefly examined during the ensuing timeout, but he remained in the game and downplayed the injury afterward, saying he was “good” and that X-rays on his wrist came back “clean.” The Celtics won, 103-86, to take a 1-0 series lead, with Tatum playing a team-high 40 minutes.

But the injury limited Tatum’s participation in Tuesday’s Celtics practice, according to head coach Joe Mazzulla, who described the four-time All-NBA wing’s status as “day to day.”

“He was able to do some stuff,” Mazzulla said. “He was sore after the game. He’s gotten a little better today. He was able to do through some on-court work and go from there.”

Tatum typically sticks around for extra work after practice, but he was not part of that group Tuesday, which included the likes of Jaylen Brown, Derrick White and Kristaps Porzingis. Later in the day, ESPN’s Shams Charania reported Tatum underwent an MRI and was diagnosed with a bone bruise, which Charania referred to as a “pain tolerance injury.”

Tatum led the Celtics in points, rebounds and assists per game this season and finished tied for 13th in the NBA in total minutes played. He also led Boston in all four categories during last year’s playoff run, averaging 40.4 minutes per game.

The Celtics have played 114 postseason games since Tatum entered the NBA in 2017, and he’s logged at least 19 minutes in all of them. Boston went 8-2 in games Tatum missed this season, with both losses coming at Orlando (including one in which Mazzulla sat his entire starting lineup).

In a post-practice news conference, veteran big man Al Horford took issue with the foul that injured Tatum, saying Caldwell-Pope’s aggressive foul crossed a line. Orlando committed the fifth-most fouls in the NBA during the regular season and is known for its physical style of defense.

“Yes, there was something extra,” Horford said. “It was about the second or third time that he, especially KCP, went at him in that way. So, yeah.”

 

After checking on Tatum after his fall, Horford had words with Caldwell-Pope.

“It just reminds you of what the playoffs are and the intensity that you play with,” Horford said. “We’re all competing. We’re playing hard. There’s a level to it. In the regular season, you probably don’t see it as consistent. In the playoffs, there’s a lot of it. That’s just a reminder.”

At the other end of the court, Mazzulla appeared to yell at Tatum to “Get up!” while holding back a member of the Celtics’ training staff. Asked why he did that, the coach said: “Love.”

“I think at the end of the day, I’m grateful for the relationship that I have with the guys,” Mazzulla explained. “I’m grateful for the relationship that I have with (Tatum). And you love guys in different ways. But everything is built on love. Everything is built on the relationship that we have, their self-expression, they allow me to be who I am. And they trust, we have a trust for each other, but it all starts with love. And so in that moment, it looks different in different moments, but I appreciate who he is as a competitor and our team in that moment but it all starts with that.”

Tatum struggled as a shooter in Game 1 (8 for 22, 1 for 8 from 3-point range, 0 for 4 on free throws) but was otherwise effective, finishing with 17 points, 14 rebounds, four assists, one steal and one block. The Celtics outscored the Magic by 23 points with him on the floor.

Losing Tatum for Game 2 would put more pressure on players like Brown (16 points on 6-for-14 shooting) and Porzingis (five points on 1-for-8 shooting), who both had quiet scoring efforts on Sunday. Brown did look more comfortable and assertive in his return from a lingering knee injury, and Mazzulla said the All-Star did not suffer any setbacks. White and Payton Pritchard combined for 49 points to spearhead Boston’s offense in the series opener.

“No matter what a hard foul is, we’re just going to get up and play ball and just check it back up,” Pritchard said, adding that he isn’t intimidated by Orlando’s physicality. “Obviously, they fouled (Tatum) hard and then he had a little fall, but It’s not going to stop us from what we’re trying to achieve. It’s not going to knock us off our path.”

As for the idea that less talented teams, like the seventh-seeded Magic, can limit the Celtics’ offensive firepower by roughing them up, Pritchard said they’re welcome to try.

“It’s fine, they can try it. See if it works,” he said. “We go into the game and do what we do.”


©2025 The Boston Herald. Visit at bostonherald.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.

 

Comments

blog comments powered by Disqus