If the Boston Celtics extend their season by beating the New York Knicks visiting in match 5 of the semi-finals of the Eastern Conference on Wednesday evening, they will do it without the top scorer Jayson Tatum.
Tatum, 27, suffered a rupture of the Achilles tendon on the right in the last minutes of the 121-113 victory in New York in match 4 Monday evening. It was operated on Tuesday and will miss the rest of the playoffs.
The Celtics said that surgery was a success, but the duration of the recovery process remains clear. Some reports indicate that Tatum could also miss all 2025-26 season.
“Prepare for the next one,” said Jaylen Brown. “Prepare to fight. Prepare to go out on our floor at home and do what we have to do. This is the goal. Always the goal. We have enough in the locker room, so I believe in my guys.”
Knicks have a 3-1 lead in the series and can end the Boston season with a victory on Wednesday. The victory would also put New York in the final of the Eastern Conference for the first time in 25 years.
Jalen Brunson collected 39 points and 12 assists to help the Knicks overcome a 14 -point deficit in match 4. He has an average of 30.2 points in 34 career playoffs with New York.
“We have an excellent opportunity,” said Brunson. “We are playing a very good team, and I don’t think we play our best basketball. We have a fairly new team this year and we still have a long way to go to be the best possible. There is always time to learn for us. We must make sure that we are never satisfied and that we have this student mentality.”
Tatum scored 42 points in match 4, also accumulating eight rebounds, four assists, four interceptions and two blocks before it was helped on the ground with 2:58 on the left. He collected on average 26.8 points per game in the regular season.
“Obviously, you are still concerned about someone’s health, so it’s twice,” said Boston coach Joe Mazzulla. “We are concerned about his health, where he is, then we are concerned about what we have to do better for match 5 when we return to Boston.”
The Celtics had a 9-2 sheet this season in the matches they played without a tatum. This includes a 109-100 victory on Orlando in the first round. Tatum led to this match with a wrist injury.
“This is part of this sport, part of this game, and we feel for him, of course,” said Kristaps Porzingis de Boston. “But we have to move forward. He doesn’t want us to be sad and we are not playing our best basketball. So we’re going to go there and leave everything and live with the results.”
New York will seek his third victory in Boston in the series. The Knicks took an advance in the 2-0 series with road victories before the teams divided two games in New York. The Knicks are 5-0 on the road in the playoffs.
“This team is special,” said Karl-Anthony Towns Karl-Anthony about Boston, according to the New York Daily News. “They defend champions. You need an entire team to beat them.”
Towns has double-doubles in six consecutive games dating from the Knicks series in the first round against Detroit and has an average of 19.8 points and 14.0 rebounds in the Boston series.
– field level media
