Getty Jayson Tatum of the Boston Celtics.
The Boston Celtics picked up a huge win on Thursday night, taking down the defending champs. They bested the Golden State Warriors in their second meeting of the season after getting punked in the first back on December 10, when the Warriors defeated them in San Francisco.
However, the hard-fought win didn’t come without its setbacks. They pulled off an incredible late-game comeback and earned the win in overtime, but Jayson Tatum played a ton of minutes. And now, Tatum is listed as out for Boston’s game against the Toronto Raptors on Saturday, January 21. It will be just the third game he’s missed all season.
The official Celtics Twitter account announced the following:
#NEBHInjuryReport for tomorrow vs. Toronto:
Danilo Gallinari (left knee ACL repair) – OUT
Jayson Tatum (left wrist soreness) – OUT
Tatum has been dealing with a wrist issue all season long. Earlier in the season, after a win over the Detroit Pistons, the Celtics superstar revealed as much, but also noted that he was simply managing the injury.
“Same wrist, same hand, something a little different that we’re just managing at this moment,” Tatum said via NBC Sports Boston. “Nothing that I gotta have surgery, but something that’s bothering me. But just tape it up and go out there and continue to play.”
However, there’s a chance that his upcoming absence against Toronto may have more to do with the workload he took on against the Warriors. Tatum notched a career-high in minutes, playing 48:07. He checked back in the game at the start of the second quarter and proceeded to play the entirety of that quarter, the third quarter, the fourth quarter, and overtime, all without taking a rest.
But it resulted in a win for the Celtics, and despite a poor shooting night, Tatum recorded some solid stats. The superstar dropped 34 points, a career-high 19 rebounds, six assists, and three steals on 9-of-27 shooting from the field and 4-of-13 shooting from behind the three-point line.
Jayson Tatum Praises Al Horford’s Performance
While Tatum’s long night and impressive stats were a highlight, no one shined brighter against the Warriors than Al Horford. After the game, Jayson Tatum was even questioning how old the 36-year-old big man really is. (Jokingly, of course.)
“I joked with Al. He came out and looked like he was 25 today,” Tatum said via CLNS Media. “Two days off, I said he needs more two days in a row, because he came out and set the tone, he really did. And we all kind of followed behind that the rest of the night.”
Steve Kerr Discusses Jaylen Brown’s Game-Tying Shot
Tatum’s and Horford’s dominance against the Warriors was put on the back burner for a moment when Jaylen Brown nailed a game-tying three at the end of regulation. It sent the game into overtime and helped Boston earn the victory. After the game, Warriors head coach Steve Kerr sounded off on his team’s defensive mistake.
“I haven’t seen the replay yet, but in that situation, it’s – the whole game plan is no threes, right? And there was no timeout. They didn’t take a timeout,” Kerr said via NBC Sports Bay Area. “They just came down and played. And so that’s where the guys have to be able to decipher that on the fly. You can debate fouling there. It’s pretty early to foul generally, it’s, you know, kind of under eight, under 10, or whatever. Everybody’s going to debate that forever in this game. But what you can’t do is give up an open three. And so the whole idea is switch everything and run them off the line and don’t don’t let them line up at three. So we had a defensive breakdown that led to the opening.”