It’s a mental picture that will haunt the Celtics for years.
Jayson Tatum down on the court at Madison Square Garden between the top of the key and the 3-point line, writhing while trying to call a timeout.
The pain was too much to hold still, forcing him to spin awkwardly on the floor as he grabbed his right ankle, unsuccessfully trying to find a position that reduced the pain.
It was hard to watch and hard to process. In that moment, everything was in doubt — the game (which the Knicks won 121-113). The series. The season and his future.
It was bad enough that Knicks big man Karl-Anthony Towns appeared to say a prayer over Tatum.
Non-contact injuries are scary because the news that follows is rarely ever good. Tatum couldn’t put any weight on his injured leg as he was helped off the court by two Celtics staffers. He covered his face with his hands as he was pushed by wheelchair through the halls of Madison Square Garden.
Tatum has been among the most durable superstars in the NBA. Unlike many of his brethren, who’ve adopted soccer-style embellishment tactics after being fouled, Tatum has taken some tough shots before and always gets up. He might complain to the officials, but he always gets off the floor.
“The fact that he had to be carried off … he’s the type of guy that he gets right up,” Joe Mazzulla said. “It’s tough to watch a guy like him get carried off like that.”
Trainers help Boston Celtics’ Jayson Tatum (0) off the court after he was injured during the second half of Game 4 in the Eastern Conference semifinals of the NBA basketball playoffs against the New York Knicks Monday, May 12, 2025, in New York. (AP Photo/Frank Franklin II)AP
Tatum will have an MRI on Tuesday and until the results are announced, Celtics fans will hope and pray that the doom-diagnosing graduates of Twitter Medical School are wrong about the seriousness of Tatum’s condition. But optimism was in short supply.
“Didn’t look great. But I think everybody is kind of more concerned with that,” Jaylen Brown said. “Obviously, the loss is huge. But we’ve got to get ready for Game 5, so we’ll take the night and pick our heads up tomorrow and put together a game plan to come out on our own floor to keep this series alive.”
The timing of an injury that bad doesn’t matter. It would be brutal no matter when it happened. If Tatum went down during a terrible shooting night while the Celtics were getting blown out, it would have still been catastrophic.
But there was added sting because it happened in one of the best postseason games of his career. On a night where most of his teammates struggled, his 42 points, eight rebounds and four steals kept Boston in the game. It was a performance that Kobe Bryant, his idol, would have been proud of.
The game was already slipping away from the Celtics, who were down by nine when Tatum left with 2:58 left. But up to that point, he’d played well enough for Boston fans to hope he might have enough magic left to make a comeback happen.
That hope disappeared with him down the tunnel, unlikely to return anytime soon.
Even if the injury miraculously isn’t as bad as feared, it’s impossible to believe Tatum could be back any time soon and almost as hard to picture Boston winning without him. There’s a chance for a true guts-and-character win on Wednesday, but that’s hard to repeat three times.
The 1980s Celtics’ championship window closed with injuries to Kevin McHale’s foot and Larry Bird’s back. The 2008 championship core missed a chance for more when Kevin Garnett was injured in 2009 and Kendrick Perkins went down in 2010.
The expected luxury-tax-related roster moves that are coming this summer would have made contending tougher for the Celtics in the future. Still, any team built around Tatum and Brown figured to at least be in the mix.
But if Tatum has a long-term injury, it could set the Celtics back for a long time.
