There was a feeling of gloom inside the visitors locker room in Madison Square Garden after Monday night’s Game 4.
The Celtics didn’t say much to each other. Everyone had their minds on one player, more than the pivotal loss that could erase any hopes of defending their NBA championship.
That’s because Boston’s All-Star leader who always gets back up couldn’t get off the hardwood in the final minutes of a late Game 4 comeback attempt.
All Jayson Tatum could do was lie on the floor in pain while holding an injured right leg that seemingly gave out without contact.
The same Tatum that repeatedly got off the ground through his first eight NBA seasons now needed to be carried off on the shoulders of his training staff. Just like that, he was gone. Gone for Game 5 and possibly much longer.
“It’s very concerning. The care that I have for him. What he means to us. What he means to Boston. Just very tough for us,” said Al Horford, who has been alongside Tatum in Boston since the franchise drafted the former Duke star third overall in 2017. “More important, it’s just really tough for him right now. Let’s see what happens. Just very tough for our group altogether.”
Tatum’s leg gave out at the 3:07 mark of the fourth quarter with his team down 111-104. The injury seemed to occur when Tatum planted his right leg attempting to retrieve a 50-50 ball near the three-point arc.
The next moments were brutal to watch.
Tatum dropped to the floor, slapped the hardwood and pleaded for his team to call a timeout after Knicks forward OG Anunoby converted a fastbreak dunk. Tatum grimaced in pain for a few more seconds before trainers attended to him on the floor.
The Anunoby dunk, which made it a nine-point game with under three minutes to play, was an afterthought.
Forget about the sudden 3-1 series deficit against the Knicks.
The wellbeing of Boston’s leader had been compromised.
“The loss is the loss. More importantly, it’s just Jayson that I’m worried about,” Horford said. “Just making sure that I’m there for him. That’s my priority.”
The sight of Tatum being unable to walk off on his own power is unfamiliar to the Celtics franchise. The 27-year-old has stayed relatively healthy since getting drafted to the league.
He’s appeared in at least 72 games in six of eight NBA seasons. A mix of non-serious upper- and lower-body injuries caused the star to miss 16 games during the 2019-20 season. And during the following campaign, Tatum missed 14 games dealing with ankle injuries, illness and being in COVID-19 protocols.
He recently missed his first postseason appearance in Game 2 of the first-round series against the Orlando Magic due to a bone bruise in his right wrist. It was his lone postseason DNP but certainly not his last after Monday night’s tragic scare.
The question now is for how long will the Celtics be without their No. 1 guy. The scenes outside the locker weren’t encouraging either as videos circulated of Tatum being transported in a wheelchair after leaving the game.
“Yeah, obviously, you’re always worried about someone’s health, so the fact that he had to be carried off, like you said, he’s the type of guy that he gets right up,” said Celtics head coach Joe Mazzulla at the postgame podium on Monday. “So he didn’t, and we’ll know tomorrow exactly what it is, but yeah. I mean, it’s tough to watch a guy like him get carried off like that.”
All Celtics players made available to the media hadn’t seen or spoken to Tatum immediately after Game 4. Mazzulla didn’t have a conversation either and was unsure if the superstar suffered an Achilles or ankle injury after speaking with medical staff.
Jaylen Brown, Tatum’s star running mate for the past seven seasons, said “I’m not sure” when asked how he could digest what the injury could mean for Tatum and the franchise.
“I have no words right now,” Brown added at the podium.
Brown then summed up how the team felt after falling into a 3-1 deficit while not knowing the severity of Tatum’s injury.
“I think everybody’s concerned with Jayson,” Brown said. “I’m not sure how bad it is. Didn’t look great. But I think everybody is kind of more concerned with that. Obviously the loss is huge. But we’ve got to get ready for Game 5, so we’ll take the night and pick our heads up tomorrow and put together a game plan to come out on our own floor to keep this series alive.”
How does Brown process this?
“I guess you just take it as it comes. You get whatever information is needed. Tomorrow we’ll know more or find out more. And then we’ve still got basketball to play on our own floor, so we come out and we play Celtic basketball.”
Since his arrival to the league, Tatum has been synonymous with Celtic basketball. He’s ingrained into the green and white fabric of Celtics basketball. That’s what makes the feeling of this injury more gut-wrenching for his teammates.
“I mean, obviously that’s our brother, and you hate to see him go down,” said Derrick White. “We just know the type of guy he is, and it’s just tough to see him go down.”
White — like the others — didn’t get a chance to speak with Tatum following Game 4. But he made it known that the star has the support needed from the guys in the locker room.
“No I didn’t see him, but he knows that we love him and I’ll see him soon,” White said.
