BOSTON — On Sunday afternoon, Jayson Tatum appeared to hurt his wrist after being on the receiving end of a hard foul from Orlando Magic forward Kentavius Caldwell-Pope. Tatum lay on the ground for a few minutes after the foul, and afterwards confirmed to the media that X-rays came back clean and that a throbbing sensation had gone away.
But, at practice on Tuesday, Celtics head coach Joe Mazzulla said that Tatum was day-to-day, and didn’t confirm he was definitively going to go in Game 2.
“He was able to do some stuff,” Mazzulla said. “He was sore after the game. It’s gotten a little better today. He was able to do some on-court work, and we’ll go from there.”
A clip from the initial play went viral on Sunday night that showcased Mazzulla urging Tatum to get up and discouraging a trainer from immediately going over to tend to him.
When asked about why he reacted like that to Tatum’s fall, Mazzulla initially kept things simple: “Love.”
Asked to elaborate on that, Mazzulla added: “I’m grateful for the relationship that I have with the guys, grateful for the relationship that I have with him. And you love guys in different ways, but everything’s built on love. Everything’s built on the relationship that we have — their self-expression, they allow me to be who I am. We have a trust for each other.”
The Celtics will host the Magic for Game 2 of the first round of the NBA playoffs on Wednesday at 7pm.
The Celtics’ official injury report will be up later on Tuesday afternoon, where the team will indicate whether the Celtics are still is probable, questionable, doubtful, or out altogether.
This story will be updated as more information is available.
