Jayson Tatum Breaks Down Decision To Sit Out Game 7 Vs. 76ers originally appeared on NESN.
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The Boston Celtics saw their season come to a close on Saturday night after falling to the Philadelphia 76ers, 109-100, in a decisive Game 7.
A key factor in the Celtics’ failure to clinch was the absence of their star forward Jayson Tatum who was held out due to stiffness in his left knee. He went on to explain his decision to miss Game 7.
“The staff, the medical team, they just kind of assessed everything that was going on,” Tatum said on Sunday, via ClutchPoints Daniel Donabedian. “And I was in the window of return-to-play protocol, and there were just certain rules and a plan that, ultimately, that we had to stick by.”
Tatum suffered an injury in the second half of Game 6 on Thursday night, but it didn’t seem like it would affect his availability for the next game. Head coach Joe Mazzulla stated during Friday’s press conference that Tatum would play in Game 7, and the Celtics later that afternoon even excluded him from the injury report.
However, everything changed on Saturday afternoon when the Celtics listed Tatum as questionable, only to rule him out a few hours later.
If Tatum weren’t coming off a torn Achilles that he suffered around this time last year, he might have been willing to give it a shot in Game 7. Yet, it was just too much of a risk to see if he could actually play.
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