{"id":649789,"date":"2026-03-10T00:14:17","date_gmt":"2026-03-10T00:14:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/649789\/"},"modified":"2026-03-10T00:14:17","modified_gmt":"2026-03-10T00:14:17","slug":"jayson-tatums-early-return-complicates-knicks-nba-championship-hunt","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/649789\/","title":{"rendered":"Jayson Tatum’s early return complicates Knicks’ NBA championship hunt"},"content":{"rendered":"

Jayson Tatum<\/a> is back \u2014 and that\u2019s not good news for the Knicks<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Call it a well-ahead-of-schedule return for Tatum, the perennial All-Star who ruptured his Achilles in Game 4 of the Boston Celtics\u2019 second-round playoff series against the Knicks last season.<\/p>\n

Tatum returned in nine-and-a-half months from a career-threatening injury, usually needing a year or more to heal after surgery. He isn\u2019t quite himself fully, but with 15 and 20 points on a minutes restriction in his first two games back in green and white, the superstar forward isn\u2019t just on pace to round into form entering the playoffs.<\/p>\n

Tatum is returning right in time to complicate matters for the Knicks and their win-now mandate.<\/p>\n

The Celtics were already seeded above the Knicks without their star forward, an unforeseen turn of events after they traded both Jrue Holiday and Kristaps Porzingis during the offseason, clear signs of a franchise ready to punt the year if Tatum needed more time to return from his ruptured Achilles.<\/p>\n

Yet Boston, as of Monday ahead of tipoff between the Knicks and Los Angeles Clippers<\/a>, sat second in the East, 2.5 games behind the No. 1 seeded Detroit Pistons and 2.5 games ahead of New York in third place.<\/p>\n

Tatum, one could assume, would take no greater pleasure than sinking the same Knicks team responsible for his injury\u2013especially given the stakes at play in New York, where ownership has dictated the team should at least make it to the NBA Finals, if not win the championship outright, this season.<\/p>\n

Next year, the road to a title will be full of obstacles: Tatum will be fully healthy. The Indiana Pacers will welcome back All-Star point guard Tyrese Haliburton<\/a>, who ruptured his Achilles in Game 7 of the NBA Finals, and the Detroit Pistons\u2013who swept the season series against the Knicks, 3-0\u2013will have another year under their belt as an emerging title contender built around MVP candidate Cade Cunningham. Plus the Cleveland Cavaliers will have a full offseason with the newfound duo of James Harden and Donovan Mitchell. Giannis Antetokounmpo can\u2019t be counted out of the Eastern Conference, either.<\/p>\n

Tatum is 21-8 against the Knicks in his career. He is 8-3 against the Knicks since they signed Jalen Brunson in the summer of 2022 and is averaging 25.7 points, 7.4 rebounds and 4.8 assists on on 45.7% shooting from the field and 36.2% from three-point range in those games.<\/p>\n

The Knicks stole home-court advantage, took a commanding 2-0 series lead, and led Game 4, 113-104, with 2:58 left in the fourth quarter when Tatum sustained his Achilles injury. He had 42 points and four steals on 16-of-28 shooting from the field before he exited the game but averaged just 19.3 points through the first three games of the series. The Knicks went on to win Game 4, 121-113, to take a 3-1 series lead. The Celtics responded with a lights-out three-point performance in Game 5, but the Knicks ended the series in six.<\/p>\n

Tatum is 1-3 against the Knicks in the playoffs in his career.<\/p>\n

The Celtics are 309-192 against the Knicks all-time but are 38-35 against the Knicks in the playoffs.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Jayson Tatum is back \u2014 and that\u2019s not good news for the Knicks. Call it a well-ahead-of-schedule return…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":649790,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3768],"tags":[7,46,288,78,304,6,1136,191,3810,3806],"class_list":{"0":"post-649789","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-york-knicks","8":"tag-basketball","9":"tag-celtics","10":"tag-jalen-brunson","11":"tag-jaylen-brown","12":"tag-knicks","13":"tag-nba","14":"tag-new-york","15":"tag-new-york-knicks","16":"tag-newyork","17":"tag-newyorkknicks"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/116201997553916949","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/649789","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=649789"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/649789\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/649790"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=649789"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=649789"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=649789"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}