Tatum passed first test with flying colors but Celtics not out of the woods yet

Aside from a slow start shooting the ball, which was likely a result of nerves more than anything else, Jayson Tatum’s season debut went about as well as anyone could have hoped. JT settled into the game, knocked down a few threes, threw down a putback dunk, got to the basket and finished through contact, got into his midrange, dished out great passes, guarded his yard on defense, and controlled the glass.

All told, he finished with 15 points, 12 rebounds, and 7 assists as the Celtics took down the Mavericks, 120-100. Most importantly, Tatum looked like himself out there. Playing in an NBA game for the first time in almost 300 days, he was planting and blowing by people, elevating for dunk attempts, and looking like a peak physician and athletic specimen on both ends of the court for his 27 minutes.

It’s already an amazing achievement, and Friday night’s game is a moment that should go down in Tatum and Celtics lore for eternity. What we witnessed in TD Garden was special. The scene in the building transcended sports and almost felt more like something out of a movie.

Real challenges are still to come for Tatum

Celtics fans are right to be extremely excited and optimistic, but let’s not kid ourselves; there are many more hurdles to clear. On the most recent Game Theory podcast episode, Sam Vecenie and Bryce Simon talked about Tatum’s return, and as someone who went through a similar injury as a college athlete, Simon talked about the next steps being some of the hardest.

He explained that it’s all about seeing how the first few weeks go, and how Jayson’s body responds to consistent NBA action for the first time in 10 months. No matter how ready he is, physically and mentally, this is a bigger adjustment than Tatum and his body has ever gone through.

Simon and Vecenie both agreed it’s really about those first 5-10 games, and that there’s so much risk of something flaring up - possibly not even the injured area. If there’s any, even slight, setback, we may see the Celtics and Tatum choose to just shut it down and come back ready to roll for next season.

Hopefully, that’s not the case. Tatum looked awesome and, by all accounts, came out of his first game feeling good. He immediately came in and improved the team with all of his additive skills, and has them looking dangerous as can be. If he can keep progressing in the right direction and continue ramping up successfully ahead of the playoffs, the Celtics are going to be the scariest team in the East.

But it’s probably best to temper expectations after one great game, and as good as things look, there are still a lot of boxes to check before we’re quite back to business as usual.