Jayson Tatum will be available Saturday for Game 7 against the 76ers, Celtics head coach Joe Mazzulla confirmed.
“He’ll play,” Mazzulla said Friday in a conference call with reporters.
Hours later, the Celtics announced they had “no injuries to report” ahead of their winner-take-all matchup at TD Garden.
Tatum dealt with what he described as stiffness in his left leg — not the leg in which he tore his Achilles last year — during Thursday’s Game 6 loss in Philadelphia. Peacock’s game broadcast showed him massaging his calf during a second-quarter timeout, and he briefly exited toward the locker room during the third quarter.
He checked out with four minutes remaining in the third and did not return. Mazzulla pulled the rest of his starters early in the fourth quarter and played the final 10 minutes of Boston’s 106-93 defeat with bench players.
“You all probably saw when I went to the back, saw me on the bike,” Tatum said postgame. “My leg just was a little stiff when I came out in the third quarter. But, you know, just kind of assessing the moment. Like, the game was a little out of reach. We took the starters out and let the bench guys go in.”
Tatum downplayed the issue, saying he “wasn’t overly concerned.”
He finished with 17 points, 11 rebounds, three assists and three turnovers while playing 29 minutes, his lowest total in a game since March 10. He logged at least 39 minutes in three of the first five games of the first-round series, including a season-high 42 in the Celtics’ Game 3 win.
“Yeah, I expect to play (in Game 7),” Tatum said. “It was my other leg. So not the one I injured last year. I wasn’t overly concerned. (Expletive), I came out at four minutes like I was supposed to and just kind of assessed the game. And they took the starters out fairly early in the fourth quarter. So, yeah, it was not that big of a deal.”
Tatum, who made his season debut on March 6, has averaged 23.3 points, 10.7 rebounds and 6.8 assists over the six playoff games, shooting 47.5% from the field and 36.5% from 3-point range.
Asked whether the team had any concern about Tatum’s leg, Mazzulla replied: “I expect him to be fine.”
The Celtics have had their full roster available for every game this postseason.
