{"id":622773,"date":"2026-02-24T22:08:36","date_gmt":"2026-02-24T22:08:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/622773\/"},"modified":"2026-02-24T22:08:36","modified_gmt":"2026-02-24T22:08:36","slug":"jayson-tatum-injury-doesnt-kill-celtics-nba-finals-hopes-according-to-kendrick-perkins","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/622773\/","title":{"rendered":"Jayson Tatum injury doesn\u2019t kill Celtics\u2019 NBA Finals hopes, according to Kendrick Perkins"},"content":{"rendered":"

Jayson Tatum injury doesn\u2019t kill Celtics\u2019 NBA Finals hopes, according to Kendrick Perkins<\/a> appeared first on ClutchPoints<\/a>. Add ClutchPoints as a Preferred Source by clicking here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The Boston Celtics<\/a> have been rolling coming out of the All-Star break, picking up another blowout win over the Los Angeles Lakers<\/a> on Sunday as they continue their West Coast trip. The winning comes as the team awaits further updates on Jayson Tatum<\/a>, the injured star whom many suspect could make a return as soon as this season.<\/p>\n

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However, one person who thinks that the Celtics can reach their goals this season regardless of whether Tatum is in the lineup is former Boston big man Kendrick Perkins<\/a> of ESPN, who recently took to First Take to relay his thoughts.<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cThey can go to the NBA Finals without [Jayson] Tatum. \u2026 They are the most dangerous team in the NBA because they have zero expectations,\u201d said Perkins, via First Take on X, formerly Twitter.<\/p>\n

Perkins also opined that Boston has \u201cthe best two-way player in the game in Jaylen Brown, because no other player in the league is doing what he\u2019s doing as far as being top five in scoring, and top five defensively in opponent field goal percentage.\u201d<\/p>\n

Indeed, Brown has been getting it done on both ends of the floor this year, although fans of Kawhi Leonard, Victor Wembanyama, and several other players would likely strongly disagree with Perkins\u2019 assessment.<\/p>\n

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Still, at this juncture, the Celtics are starting to look like a real threat even without Tatum in the lineup. There is one school of thought that a rushed Tatum return this season could actually work against Boston\u2019s plans for 2025-26, considering the way that the team\u2019s rhythm would at least temporarily be disrupted, and the fact that the star would have a great deal of rust to shake off. Tatum has also not exactly distinguished himself as a good postseason performer in his career thus far, which continued last year vs the New York Knicks.<\/p>\n

In any case, the Celtics\u2019 road trip will continue on Tuesday vs the Phoenix Suns.<\/p>\n

Related: Marcus Smart, JJ Redick praise Celtics\u2019 Joe Mazzulla amid COTY campaign<\/a><\/p>\n

Related: Celtics\u2019 Joe Mazzulla\u2019s priceless reaction to Pat Riley\u2019s \u2018kicking some Boston a**\u2019 quote<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Jayson Tatum injury doesn\u2019t kill Celtics\u2019 NBA Finals hopes, according to Kendrick Perkins appeared first on ClutchPoints. Add…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":622774,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[7,75,78,77,529,2058,150,6,11,191,472,693,78065],"class_list":{"0":"post-622773","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nba-playoffs","8":"tag-basketball","9":"tag-boston-celtics","10":"tag-jaylen-brown","11":"tag-jayson-tatum","12":"tag-kawhi-leonard","13":"tag-kendrick-perkins","14":"tag-los-angeles-lakers","15":"tag-nba","16":"tag-nba-playoffs","17":"tag-new-york-knicks","18":"tag-phoenix-suns","19":"tag-victor-wembanyama","20":"tag-west-coast-trip"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/116127891651799908","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/622773","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=622773"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/622773\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/622774"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=622773"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=622773"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=622773"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}