BOSTON — Jayson Tatum was back on the floor Wednesday night two days after a non-COVID illness sidelined him unexpectly just minutes before opening tip in the Celtics’ loss to the Magic on Monday night.
Tatum played 41 minutes in Wednesday’s 118-114 loss to the Philadelphia 76ers at TD Garden, putting up terrific numbers in the defeat with a team-high 32 points and 15 rebounds. Tatum was not on Boston’s injury report all day until 12 minutes before the opening tip in Orlando on Monday. He was ruled out officially during halftime by the team after not emerging from the locker room all game against the Magic. The All-Star is still not back at full strength though despite playing well in his return.
“It was just a little virus – a 24-hour, 48-hour bug,” Tatum said. “I felt fine the entire day, felt fine during warmups, and then it just hit me during our meeting right before the game. Let’s just say I’ve lost a lot of fluids over the last two days.”
Monday’s loss was just the third game Tatum has missed this season. Boston got a boost from his return on Wednesday with Jrue Holiday (shoulder) sidelined. However, Tatum acknowledged he was still battling through the lingering effects of the ailment in the defeat.
“Maybe a little fatigued, I guess, from being sick the last few days, but I’m just trying to push through it, catch my second wind, things like that,” Tatum said.
Despite not feeling 100 percent, Joe Mazzulla leaned on Tatum for one of his highest minutes total of the season in a regular season game in part due to Boston being shorthanded. Holiday was ruled out hours before tip on Wednesday and the Celtics also lost Kristaps Porzingis to an ankle injury at halftime. With Boston’s bench unit struggling (12 combined points on 5-of-16 shooting), Mazzulla turned to Tatum and Jaylen Brown (42 minutes) for nearly the entire second half to try to lead a 16-point second half rally that fell short.
The Celtics have now lost two straight games for the first time all season and have fallen four full games behind the Cavs for the No. 1 seed in the Eastern Conference.
“I mean, there’s things that we’ve got to address,” Tatum said. “We’ve got to be better. It’s still a long season. Nobody’s panicking. We’ve got to navigate the emotional roller coaster of the NBA season. It feels a lot worse than it actually is. We’re not panicking or anything. We’ve just got to man up and look in the mirror and figure out some things that we’ve got to do better at.
“Everybody’s fully capable, and we’ve always done a really good job of responding, and I have no doubt that we will. So I’m not panicking, but we’ve got to be better, and we will.”
Tatum and the Celtics will look to bounce back on Friday night against the Pacers at TD Garden.
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