{"id":644523,"date":"2026-03-07T03:25:18","date_gmt":"2026-03-07T03:25:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/644523\/"},"modified":"2026-03-07T03:25:18","modified_gmt":"2026-03-07T03:25:18","slug":"jayson-tatum-returns-celtics-star-will-make-2025-26-debut-against-mavs-after-recovering-from-achilles-injury","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/644523\/","title":{"rendered":"Jayson Tatum returns: Celtics star will make 2025-26 debut against Mavs after recovering from Achilles injury"},"content":{"rendered":"

Boston Celtics superstar Jayson Tatum faced a lengthy recovery after he went down with a torn Achilles<\/a> last May. While there was some doubt about whether he would be able to play this season, Tatum always kept hope alive, saying he wasn’t ruling himself out<\/a> back in September.<\/p>\n

That prediction turned out to be true, as Tatum will return to action Friday night against the Dallas Mavericks, the Celtics announced<\/a>. The team initially listed Tatum as questionable on its injury report before upgrading him to available.<\/p>\n

Advertisement<\/p>\n

Celtics head coach Joe Mazzulla told reporters<\/a> Tatum will start.<\/p>\n

His comeback follows an up-and-down rehab. At times, Tatum showed off incredible progress<\/a>, offering hope he could get back before the year was over. But in January, a report emerged suggesting the 27-year-old star could shut it down and prepare for next season<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Shortly after that report, Tatum’s return started to look more realistic. In February, it was reported that Tatum was taking part in controlled scrimmages. He was assigned to the team’s G League affiliate to start taking part in practices. Eventually, Tatum found himself listed on the Celtics’ injury report, a sign he was getting close to a return.<\/p>\n

Advertisement<\/p>\n

That culminated in Friday’s news ahead of Tatum’s long-awaited but inspiring return from a devastating injury.<\/p>\n

Despite being without Tatum \u2014 and trading away Kristaps Porzingis and Jrue Holiday \u2014 the Celtics have performed much better than expected. The team sits near the top of the Eastern Conference, with forward Jaylen Brown in the midst of an MVP-caliber season.<\/p>\n

While it’s impossible to know whether Tatum will fully return to form upon his comeback, the forward should make an impact, even if he’s not at full strength. Tatum has made the All-Star team in each of the past six seasons in which he was healthy, and while he hasn’t won an MVP award just yet, he’s been in contention for that honor multiple times over that period.<\/p>\n

Advertisement<\/p>\n

Last season, Tatum averaged 26.8 points, 8.7 rebounds and 6.0 assists per game. Those numbers earned him his fourth straight appearance on the first team All-NBA team.<\/p>\n

The move comes at the perfect time. With the Celtics rapidly approaching the playoffs, Tatum should have enough time to work himself into form before the end of the regular season. If the team can get him back to full strength in time for the playoffs, the Celtics could be bound for a miraculous championship run during a year most wrote the team off.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Boston Celtics superstar Jayson Tatum faced a lengthy recovery after he went down with a torn Achilles last…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":644524,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[3724],"tags":[7,75,149,11606,78,77,2038,871],"class_list":{"0":"post-644523","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-basketball","8":"tag-basketball","9":"tag-boston-celtics","10":"tag-dallas-mavericks","11":"tag-injury-report","12":"tag-jaylen-brown","13":"tag-jayson-tatum","14":"tag-jrue-holiday","15":"tag-kristaps-porzingis"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/116185761571457723","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/644523","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=644523"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/644523\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/644524"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=644523"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=644523"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=644523"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}