The Boston Celtics and Philadelphia 76ers are hours away from a do-or-die Game 7, and after initial reports that everyone on both teams was available, the Celtics have announced that they might be shorthanded on Saturday night.
Jayson Tatum, who was seen trying to work through some sort of left leg issue at the end of Game 7, has been ruled out of the game with left knee stiffness.
Celtics coach Joe Mazzulla held a conference call with the media on Friday and was insistent that Tatum was going to be available, but something clearly changed between Friday and Saturday afternoon. Joe Mazzulla said in his pregnaname media availability that the decision to sit Tatum out was made 20 minutes prior. He classified the injury as stiffness in the back of the knee, and that Tatum is day-to-day.
Tatum left third quarter of Game 6 at his normal time, and never returned because the game was out of hand and Mazzulla decided to insert his bench. After the game, Tatum didn’t make much of the issue.
“You all probably saw when I went to the back, saw me on the bike,” he said after the loss. “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.”
He later made sure to note that the stiffness was not in the right leg where he suffered his torn Achilles.
“It was my other leg. So not the one I injured last year,” he said. “I wasn’t overly concerned. 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 like that big of a deal.”
It was always unclear what the injury was, so today’s report clarifies that it has something to do with his knee and not his calf. He was at his locker after Game 6, as everyone is after games, with his knees wrapped in ice, but he also had an additional ice pack on the back of his left leg, covering the knee and top of the calf. He appeared to be walking normally to the postgame podium.
If he can’t go, the Celtics will go back to the style that got them through most of the season, with Jaylen Brown as the primary scoring option, which will undoubtedly lead to a number of double-teams to get the ball out of his hands. That makes Derrick White, Payton Pritchard, and other role players like Baylor Scheierman and Neemias Queta incredibly more important.
The Sixers might also dare Brown to beat them himself, staying home on shooters and walling off the paint to prevent him from driving. If that becomes the case, Brown will have to win the game with mid-range jumpers, something he was comfortable with most of the season, and Joe Mazzulla will have to get creative to encourage cutters to get open for easy looks. If that’s the case, then Hugo Gonzalez and Jordan Walsh, both good cutters, might have to be big contributors.
“I think a season is about creating different identities,” Mazzulla said. “I think that’s something we’ve done throughout the year is, even when Jayson was out, other guys were out, and we had to play another type of way. So I think that’s what the seasons for, is to create different identities. And then, throughout playoffs, a series, you try to lean on a few of those. “So a couple of the identities that we had throughout the season, we’ll lean on tonight.”
This will be a massive test, but if there’s any solace at a moment like this, it’s that the Celtics have played most of the season without Tatum, so they’re aware of how to do it.
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