The announced Tuesday that superstar forward underwent surgery to repair a ruptured right Achilles tendon Tuesday afternoon after suffering the injury late in the fourth quarter of Monday’s Game 4 loss to the .
The team said the surgery was a success and that no timetable was available for his return.
Tatum was in the midst of one of the best playoff games of his career, scoring 42 points on 16-for-28 shooting, before he crumpled to the ground in immense pain with three minutes to go in the fourth quarter Monday night.
He eventually was lifted to his feet and carried off the court, unable to put any weight on his foot. And even though the defending champions moved to within a game of elimination with the loss, the focus after the game was almost solely on Tatum’s health.
“I mean, at this point, I’m concerned about Jayson,” Celtics center said in the locker room after the game. “That’s the most important to me.
“The game stuff, we’ll address it. But I’m just hoping that he’s okay.”
Tatum has been one of the most durable and successful players in the league since being selected third overall by Boston in 2017. He’s about to be named to his fourth consecutive All-NBA first team — making him one of just 43 players in the history of the league to have made that many — while having turned 27 in March.
His 42-poing game was the fifth time in his career he’s scored at least 40 in a postseason game, tying him with Hall of Famers Larry Bird and for the most in the storied history of the Celtics.
Tatum led the team in points, rebounds and assists during last year’s run to the team’s record-breaking 18th NBA title, and has played in more games than any player in the league since he was drafted, in addition to winning gold medals with Team USA at the Tokyo and Paris Olympics.
He’s also second only to in total playoff points scored through the age of 27, per ESPN Research.
Now, his availability for not only the rest of these playoffs, but next season, is in doubt, a massive blow to a Celtics team that was looking to make it to the Eastern Conference finals for a fourth consecutive season, a fifth time in six years and a sixth time in eight years since Tatum was drafted.
The Celtics will now have to find a way to recover from the devastation of not only losing their leader and star for the rest of these playoffs, but also letting a third double-digit lead slip away in this series. Boston led by at least 20 points in each of its home losses in Games 1 and 2, before taking a 14-point lead Monday that eventually slipped away.
“These things happen,” Celtics center said after Monday’s loss. “Obviously we all felt for him in that moment, but we just have to keep going, we have to keep playing. Obviously we all realized in our heads what this could mean, but again, this is part of the sport, it’s tough, and it’s hard to see and hard to accept the truth. “But, it is what it is and we have to go forward with what we have now.”
