The Celtics were already on the ropes, but a crushing injury to Jayson Tatum could well have been the final blow.
Tatum had to be carried off the court in Boston’s Game 4 121-113 loss with just over three minutes left to play in the game.
The Celtics had just turned the ball over and as Tatum lunged forward toward the loose ball, his leg gave out and he went down.
He buried his face in a towel in obvious pain while grabbing at his right leg above the ankle after the non-contact injury.
It was obvious the injury was serious, even before testing has been carried out.
“I know it’s a lower body injury,” C’s coach Joe Mazzulla said. “He’s going to get an MRI tomorrow. He’s with the doctors now. — Obviously, always concerned about someone’s health.”
Knicks star Jalen Brunson opened his news conference extending his thoughts and prayers to Tatum.
“I thought he just rolled his ankle,” said Brunson. “Obviously, we want to go out there and compete, but when a player of his caliber goes down and he’s rolling in pain like that, you know something’s wrong — you just never want to see something like that, ever.”
Boston big man Kristaps Porzingis said of his teammate and the general mindset:
“Obviously, we all felt for him in that moment, but we just have to keep going. We have to keep playing. Obviously, we all realize in our heads what this could mean. But again, this is part of the sport, and it’s tough, and it’s hard to see, and hard to accept the truth. But it is what it is, and we have to go with what we have now.”
Tatum’s running mate Jaylen Brown wasn’t quite ready to think about the gravity of the injury.
“I’m not sure,” he said. “I’ve got no words right now. I guess you just take it as it comes. Tomorrow we’ll know more, we’ll find out more. We’ve still got basketball to play.”
