Jayson Tatum suffers torn Achilles: Injury could force Celtics star to miss all of next season in brutal blow

Boston Celtics star Jayson Tatum suffered a torn right Achilles tendon during Monday night’s playoff loss to the Knicks, the team announced Tuesday. Tatum has already reportedly undergone surgery, and though an exact timetable for his return is not immediately clear, he is expected to miss a significant portion, if not all, of next season. 

The news, which was expected, is a significant blow to the Celtics — who are down 3-1 to the New York Knicks in their second-round series — in both the short and long term. Boston will try to keep its season alive without Tatum on Wednesday night in Game 5.

Tatum was injured late in the Celtics’ Game 4 loss on Monday. While chasing a loose ball in the final minutes of the fourth quarter, Tatum took a step backwards with his right leg and immediately collapsed to the ground. He did not get up for a long time and eventually had to be carried off the floor by the Celtics’ medical staff. 

Upon reaching the tunnel, Tatum was placed in a wheelchair because he could not put any weight on his injured leg. 

“Obviously, you’re always worried about someone’s health, so the fact that he had to be carried off — like you said, he’s the type of guy that gets right up. He didn’t,” Celtics coach Joe Mazzulla said during his postgame press conference. “We’ll know tomorrow exactly what it is. It’s tough to watch a guy like him get carried off like that.”

The Celtics, the defending NBA champions, led by as many as 14 points, but were trailing 111-104 when Tatum went down, and went on to lose by eight. This was the third time in the series that the Celtics blew a double-digit lead in the second half. 

Before his injury, Tatum was having one of the best games of his career, considering the circumstances. He finished with 42 points, eight rebounds, four assists, four steals and two blocks on 16 of 28 from the field. Now the Celtics will head home for a must-win Game 5 without their leader and best player. 

“That’s our brother and you hate to see him go down,” Derrick White said Monday. “You just know the type of guy he is and it’s tough to see him go down… He knows that we love him. I’m sure I’ll see him soon.”