For the first time in his professional career, Jayson Tatum will miss a playoff game. The six-time All-Star has been ruled out for Wednesday night’s Game 2 against the Orlando Magic at TD Garden due to a right distal radius bone bruise (wrist).
The injury is considered a pain-tolerance issue, which head coach Joe Mazzulla said the team will manage on a day-to-day basis.
Tatum confirmed after Game 1 that he underwent X-rays on the wrist, which came back “clean.” He wasn’t seen on the court during the portion of Tuesday’s practice open to the media, but Mazzulla said he was able to do some light workouts.
“He was able to do some stuff,” Mazzulla said. “He was sore after the game. It’s gotten a little better today. He was able to do some on-court work, and we’ll go from there.”
Tatum suffered the injury in the fourth quarter of Game 1 after landing on his wrist following a flagrant foul by Magic forward Kentavious Caldwell-Pope. Al Horford felt the foul crossed the line, but Caldwell-Pope called it a part of playoff basketball.
“Just a foul, playoff basketball. That’s all I gotta say on it,” he said. “At the end of the day, this is how I play, this is how I’ve been playing in playoff basketball. A hard foul is a hard foul. I really don’t care what anybody says. I’m still gonna play how I play, how I’m supposed to play for my team at the end of the day.”
The Celtics went 8-2 without Tatum during the regular season, though both of those losses came against the Magic. The second came in a game where all six of Boston’s top rotation players (White, Holiday, Brown, Tatum, Porzingis, Horford) were out. Horford is expected to slide into Tatum’s spot in the starting lineup.
The projected starting five of White-Holiday-Brown-Horford-Porzingis logged 77 minutes together this season—the fourth-most used lineup by the Celtics—outscoring opponents by +25. Against Orlando in December, that group was +4 in 21 minutes, despite turning the ball over eight times during that stretch.
Tatum sitting could speak to the level of discomfort he’s dealing with. Since entering the league, he’s played in 585 of the Celtics’ 636 regular season games (91.9%) and has appeared in all 114 of their playoff games—more than anyone in the league over that span.
The Celtics will not practice Thursday in Orlando but are scheduled to hold a shootaround Friday morning ahead of Game 3 at Kia Center, tipping off at 7 p.m. Friday.
Related
