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After nearly a whole season of waiting for Jayson Tatum to return to action, the Boston Celtics are hoping injury won't keep him out of Game 7 of the Eastern Conference's opening playoff round against the Philadelphia 76ers.
Tatum left Game 6 with an apparent left leg injury during the third quarter. The 'Sixers would go on to win comfortably and force the decisive seventh game.
It's worth noting right off the bat: This isn't the same leg on which Tatum tore his Achilles. That was his right leg from which he recovered to return late in the regular season.
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Tatum did a bunch of hopping and jumping during timeouts to consider returning before finally deciding he couldn't return on Thursday night.
On Friday morning, ESPN's Shams Charania joined Get Up to provide an update on Tatum.
"It's positive right now," Charania said. "Everyone in Boston is downplaying everything with Jayson Tatum... Joe Mazzulla denied that it was an injury at all. Jayson Tatum said after the game that it was just stiffness that he felt in his leg. I'm told Jayson Tatum told teammates after the game that he's fine, good to go. The expectation in Boston is Game 7, Jayson Tatum is all good."
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That doesn't remove all concern about Tatum, just given the fact that he left and didn't return from a potential closeout game. That sounds like more than Mazzulla's denial that it was an injury at all.
But it's also a situation that the Celtics have seen in the past be much worse. They know that this was tame, and seemingly not a problem.
There'll be a little extra scrutiny on the way Tatum is moving around the court in Game 7 in case something is still bothering him, but for now he sounds good to go.
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