{"id":705071,"date":"2026-04-08T11:09:18","date_gmt":"2026-04-08T11:09:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/705071\/"},"modified":"2026-04-08T11:09:18","modified_gmt":"2026-04-08T11:09:18","slug":"jayson-tatum-not-thrilled-to-return-to-site-of-injury-for-celtics-knicks","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/705071\/","title":{"rendered":"Jayson Tatum ‘not thrilled’ to return to site of injury for Celtics-Knicks"},"content":{"rendered":"

Jayson Tatum is not eager to return to the arena where, 11 months ago, his basketball life flashed before his eyes.<\/p>\n

But return, he must.<\/p>\n

The Celtics will visit the New York Knicks this Thursday, marking Tatum\u2019s first return to Madison Square Garden as an active player since he ruptured his Achilles there in Game 4 of last season\u2019s Eastern Conference semifinals.<\/p>\n

Asked after Tuesday\u2019s 113-102 win over the Charlotte Hornets<\/a> whether he was looking forward to his upcoming trip to MSG, the Celtics star replied: \u201cUh, nah, not really.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI mean, yeah, I\u2019ve thought about it,\u201d Tatum said. \u201cI\u2019m not, like, thrilled to go back and play there. Last time I played there, obviously it was a traumatic experience for me. Obviously, I knew at some point I would have to get over that hurdle and play there again. So, it\u2019s going to have to be this Thursday. But it\u2019s not like I\u2019m thrilled about it.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut it\u2019s part of it. I decided to come back and play, so I\u2019m not necessarily skipping certain games. I can\u2019t play back-to-backs right now, but I decided to come back and play, so it\u2019s just another game on the schedule.\u201d<\/p>\n

Tatum has referenced the physical and mental toll his injury took in nearly every media appearance since his return to the lineup, his grueling rehab process never far from his mind. Those feelings are sure to intensify once the Celtics arrive in New York, where they have played just once this season (Tatum attended that Oct. 24 game but did not dress).<\/p>\n

\u201cI was going to have to play there at some point,\u201d Tatum reiterated, \u201cso I might as well get it out of the way now.\u201d<\/p>\n

On the court, though, Tatum has not looked like a player who is less than a year removed from Achilles surgery. He\u2019s averaged 21.6 points, 9.8 rebounds, 5.1 assists and 1.4 steals across his first 15 appearances, with Boston posting a 13-2 record in those games. He ranks third in the NBA in defensive rebounds per game, trailing only elite bigs Nikola Jokic and Victor Wembanyama, and has improved as a shooter after an early slump<\/a>, making 40.9% of his 3-pointers over his last five games.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt seems like JT is in a good spot,\u201d co-star Jaylen Brown said. \u201cHe\u2019s playing good basketball. He\u2019s rebounding the ball, he\u2019s handling those physical drives, looks more explosive than those first couple of games, so I think he\u2019s trending in the right direction. I don\u2019t know if mentally, there possibly could be something (about Thursday\u2019s game), but that\u2019s what teammates are there for. We\u2019ve got his back, so we\u2019ll go out there and do what we\u2019ve got to do.\u201d<\/p>\n

Tatum confirmed he does intend to play against the Knicks, meaning he\u2019ll likely sit out Friday night\u2019s home game against the New Orleans Pelicans. Boston will finish the regular season Sunday against the Orlando Magic at TD Garden.<\/p>\n

\u201cHopefully I ain\u2019t breaking no rule, but yeah, I plan on playing Thursday,\u201d Tatum said.<\/p>\n

A win over New York (or in either of their final two games) would lock the Celtics into the No. 2 seed in the Eastern Conference for the second straight season. With the Knicks currently sitting third, one game up on the fourth-place Cleveland Cavaliers, a playoff rematch could await if both teams win their first-round series.<\/p>\n

\u201c(We\u2019re) just ramping up at the right time, knowing that post-All-Star break is pivotal for teams really trying to compete for a championship,\u201d Tatum said. \u201cYou want to be physically feeling your best as a unit, playing well together, clicking on all cylinders, and this year is no different. We\u2019ve been playing extremely well going into the playoffs up to this point, and knowing that we\u2019ve got a few games left to feel really good about ourselves and then find out who we\u2019re going to play.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Jayson Tatum is not eager to return to the arena where, 11 months ago, his basketball life flashed…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":705072,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3768],"tags":[7,75,46,5230,78,77,83693,9067,88299,88298,304,6,1136,191,3810,3806],"class_list":{"0":"post-705071","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-boston-celtics","10":"tag-celtics","11":"tag-celtics-knicks","12":"tag-jaylen-brown","13":"tag-jayson-tatum","14":"tag-jayson-tatum-celtics","15":"tag-jayson-tatum-injury","16":"tag-jayson-tatum-madison-square-garde","17":"tag-jayson-tatum-msg","18":"tag-knicks","19":"tag-nba","20":"tag-new-york","21":"tag-new-york-knicks","22":"tag-newyork","23":"tag-newyorkknicks"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/116368779814231066","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/705071","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=705071"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/705071\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/705072"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=705071"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=705071"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=705071"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}