![\"Jayson](\"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/1775130740_195_GettyImages-2268377874-e1775118070846.jpg\")
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Jayson Tatum, Boston Celtics<\/p>\n
Six-time All-Star Jayson Tatum resembled his pre-injury self again on Wednesday night, finishing with 25 points, 18 rebounds and 11 assists to lead the Boston Celtics<\/a> to a 147-129 victory over the Miami Heat<\/a>.<\/p>\n After the game, Tatum gave a special shout-out to Golden State Warriors<\/a> legend Klay Thompson<\/a>, who, like Tatum, suffered a devastating Achilles injury that sidelined him for the entire 2020-21 season and part of the 2021-22 campaign.<\/p>\n Tatum revealed that Thompson gave him some sage advice after he returned from an Achilles injury against the Dallas Mavericks<\/a> last month.<\/p>\n Jayson Tatum Thanks Klay Thompson<\/p>\n When asked whether there\u2019s been a \u201cturning point\u201d in the joy he\u2019s felt since returning from a devastating Achilles injury, Tatum detailed his conversation with Thompson.<\/p>\n \u201cKlay [Thompson] told me this after we played them the first time, he\u2019s just like, \u2018Man, he\u2019s like one thing he wished he did more, when he first came back was just give himself more grace,\u201d Tatum said, via CelticsBlog\u2019s Noa Dalzell.<\/a><\/p>\n \u201cHe was like, \u2018There\u2019s not too many people who understand what this injury is like and coming back and the ups and downs, physically and mentally that you deal with.\u2019 That\u2019s just something I\u2019ve tried to continue to remind myself.\u201d<\/p>\n Asked Jayson Tatum if he feels like there\u2019s been a turning point with the joy he\u2019s felt on the floor as of late: <\/p>\n \u201cKlay [Thompson] told me this after we played them the first time, he\u2019s just like, \u2018Man, he\u2019s like one thing he wished he did more, when he first came back was just <\/p>\n Jayson Tatum Feels \u2018Grateful\u2019<\/p>\n Tatum explained why he feels \u201cgrateful\u201d to be on the floor with his Boston Celtics teammates less than 10 months after his basketball future was in jeopardy.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s a balance of being a competitor and wanting to be the best version of yourself, but I just kind of try to remember, \u2018I\u2019ve came a long way, and I\u2019m grateful to be where I\u2019m at.\u2019<\/p>\n \u201cI wasn\u2019t 100% sure I was even gonna be able to play this year, so the fact that I\u2019m able to go out there and contribute even what I\u2019m doing now is a big win.\u201d<\/p>\n When asked if he\u2019s been applying Thompson\u2019s advice, he had an interesting response.<\/p>\n \u201cI try. I still get frustrated,\u201d Tatum responded.<\/p>\n Tatum is averaging 21.3 points, 9.8 rebounds, 4.8 assists and 1.2 steals on 40\/32\/82 shooting splits in 12 games since his return. After an initial shooting slump, Tatum has seemingly regained his stroke in recent weeks,\u00a0averaging 25.5 points on 38% shooting from three over his last five games.<\/a> The 28-year-old has also seen a significant uptick in minutes, clocking 34.9 minutes over his last three games after being on a severe minutes restriction in his first five games back from injury.<\/p>\n The Celtics are the overwhelming betting favorites to represent the East in the 2026 NBA<\/a> Finals, largely thanks to Tatum\u2019s successful return from injury.<\/p>\n \n\t\t\tSai Mohan<\/a> covers the NBA for Heavy.com. Based in Portugal, Sai is a seasoned sports writer with nearly two decades of publishing experience, including bylines at Yardbarker, FanSided’s Hoops Habit, International Business Times, Hindustan Times and more. More about Sai Mohan<\/a>\t\t<\/p>\n \n\t\t\tMore Heavy on Celtics\n\t\t<\/p>\n \n\t\t\t\tLoading more stories\n\t\t<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Getty Jayson Tatum, Boston Celtics Six-time All-Star Jayson Tatum resembled his pre-injury self again on Wednesday night, finishing…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":693519,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[3766],"tags":[7,45,75,3798,46,6],"class_list":{"0":"post-693784","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-boston-celtics","8":"tag-basketball","9":"tag-boston","10":"tag-boston-celtics","11":"tag-bostonceltics","12":"tag-celtics","13":"tag-nba"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/116334975130049386","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/693784","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=693784"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/693784\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/693519"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=693784"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=693784"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=693784"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}