The Boston Celtics picked up an impressive win on Monday night, taking down the Sacramento Kings and improving to 3-0 on their current road trip against Western Conference teams. However, the victory was tainted by an unfortunate injury. Late in the third quarter, Tatum went up for a three-point attempt and came down on Domantas Sabonis’ foot.
Tatum made the shot, but Sabonis closed out way too hard, cutting under Tatum and getting into his landing space. The Kings star picked up a Flagrant 1 foul for the play, and Tatum went down in a heap, writhing in pain while holding his ankle.
The injury didn’t look great.
After getting helped up from the floor, Tatum went over to the Celtics bench. He came back in the game to shoot two free throws to make one, but was immediately subbed out of the game afterward.
Initial Jayson Tatum ankle injury updates sound like great news
Tatum did not return to the game, the Celtics got a win, and there were a few updates after the contest. The most hopeful of the bunch came from Ramona Shelburne of ESPN, who revealed that Tatum told her that he’s just feeling “sore.” She reported the findings on Twitter:
“Jayson Tatum seems to have escaped serious injury after turning his left ankle landing on Sabonis’ foot while shooting a 3 Monday night, telling ESPN he’s just “sore” but he still needs to be “cautious.” Tatum has previously injured the same ankle.”
On top of that, Adam Himmelsbach of The Boston Globe provided some insight into what the post-game locker room looked like. He tweeted that Tatum was sitting at his locker, eating food:
“Jayson Tatum isn’t being made available for interviews. He’s at his locker eating and joking with teammates and wearing sneakers on both feet though.”
The most intriguing bit of information from Himmelsbach’s report may be that Tatum had shoes on both feet, indicating that he was not in a boot after the ankle sprain.
That would mean the sprain likely isn’t as bad as most Celtics fans initially feared when Tatum went down in a heap.
Combined with Shelburne’s reporting that Tatum is just “sore,” and it seems as though the Boston superstar should be relatively fine moving forward.
He has roughly three weeks until the start of the playoffs, too, so there is plenty of time for him to get some much-deserved rest, especially considering he’s already played in enough games to be eligible for end-of-season awards.
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