Jayson Tatum on sitting out Celtics' season-ending Game 7 loss: 'Unfortunate timing'

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Though he didn’t need to deal with a catastrophic injury this time, the pain of missing Boston’s 109-100 Game 7 loss to the Philadelphia 76ers on Saturday night still stung. “I guess it was inevitable at some point that I was going to deal with something,” Tatum said. “And it just came at the worst possible time.” Less than a year after tearing his right Achilles tendon, Tatum said he was technically still in “return to play protocol.” After he experienced left leg tightness during Game 6, Tatum said he and his medical team decided to stick with their plan on how to deal with such a setback, and there were “certain rules” they needed to follow. Before the knee problem popped up, Tatum said his entire rehabilitation process had gone smoothly. “I was out for 10 months, and then I came back and started playing, and I was playing high minutes. And that’s tough for anybody,” Tatum said. “It’s not like out of this world that something came up or experienced some tightness in some part of your body. And like I said, just unfortunate timing. I didn’t have any hiccups the first 50 weeks, and it was just, I guess maybe it was bound to happen at some point, just tough timing when it did happen.” Despite being sidelined in Game 7 and watching his team fall to Philadelphia, Tatum still appreciated what he accomplished this season after missing the first 62 games. The track record of players returning from a torn Achilles is ominous, but he quickly reestablished himself as one of the NBA’s premier players after making his season debut on March 6, averaging 21.8 points, 10 rebounds and 5.3 assists per game. Boston went 13-3 with Tatum in the lineup during the regular season, outscoring opponents by 10.5 points per 100 possessions with Tatum on the court. After experiencing doubts about whether he would ever return to top form, Tatum said he proved to himself that he could play at a “very, very high level” again. Looking back on his decision to play this season, when he could have given himself more time to recover, Tatum said he would have done the same thing again. “I’m very happy that I came back to be a part of his team, to get back to doing what I love, to help us, give us a chance to compete for a championship, to prove to myself that I can get back to being the guy who I was, and hopefully better,” Tatum said. “And just to kind of defy what this injury kind of means, not necessarily from the standpoint of, like, ‘I’m great, look at what I was able to accomplish,’ but to give other guys hope.” Added Tatum: “I can be sort of an inspiration, of like, if you attack rehab a certain way, if you follow these guidelines, or do it a certain way, that it’s not like a career-ending injury, that you can’t come back, that you can be yourself, that you can be better, that it won’t take 18 months.” The Celtics took a 3-1 series lead over the Sixers with a 32-point road win in Game 4. They led by 13 points in the second half of Game 5 with a chance to finish the series at home, but squandered that advantage and were unable to close the door. Without Tatum, coach Joe Mazzulla called for a stunning lineup shakeup in Game 7. The Celtics’ first unit included three players starting for the first time in their postseason careers: Luka Garza, Ron Harper Jr. and Baylor Scheierman. The starting lineup, which also featured Jaylen Brown and Derrick White, had not played together before Saturday. Mazzulla didn’t open up much about the decision after the game, saying that the Celtics saw a couple of things tactically they wanted to test out and give the series “a little bit of a different feel.” Boston won 56 games while relying on such contributors. Tatum has said the team’s style motivated him to return. He wanted to be part of such a hard-playing team. He said the Celtics were “super exciting and fun to watch.” “I don’t think how it ended should take away from the growth of each guy in that locker room and the steps that they all made this season and from what the expectations were of this team to being a two-seed and everybody having an important role and showing their value, and just doing it together,” Tatum said. “This team was a joy to watch, and it was a joy to be a part of when I was able to join them.” Tatum said he doesn’t expect his issue to linger. He said he would have been considered day-to-day if the Celtics had advanced to meet the New York Knicks in the second round. Of course, Boston didn’t make it that far, leaving Tatum to enter the offseason earlier than he is accustomed to. He was disappointed from the time he learned he wouldn’t be able to suit up in the deciding game, and sad watching the Celtics lose in Game 7. “I didn’t think it was going to end that way,” Tatum said. “… To have to sit yesterday in the biggest game of the season and just not being able to be out there and be a part of that, obviously because everybody knows how much I care about this game and love being out there. So just having to sit there in that moment, it was just tough.” As much as it hurt Tatum to miss Game 7, he sounded excited to enter the offseason with a chance to build on his late-season success. “Since the day I had surgery, rehab just went so well, and we just kept climbing and defying the odds and doing things that people didn’t think were possible and the whole nine,” Tatum said. “So it doesn’t mean that I’m indestructible or hiccups don’t happen along the way. And then just when it did, it just happened to be at a very unfortunate time. But in the big picture of things, today is May 3. I tore my Achilles on May 12 (2025), so it hasn’t even been a full year yet.” Tatum said one of his legs is still smaller than the other, calling his post-injury level at 80 to 85 percent. “Now that I get a long offseason to really get back to 110 percent, I guess that’s the silver lining of it all.” Spot the pattern. Connect the terms Find the hidden link between sports terms