{"id":706848,"date":"2026-04-09T20:18:40","date_gmt":"2026-04-09T20:18:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/706848\/"},"modified":"2026-04-09T20:18:40","modified_gmt":"2026-04-09T20:18:40","slug":"why-jayson-tatum-chose-to-push-through-nervousness-play-vs-knicks","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/706848\/","title":{"rendered":"Why Jayson Tatum chose to push through ‘nervousness,’ play vs. Knicks"},"content":{"rendered":"

NEW YORK \u2014 Jayson Tatum felt a sense of unease as he walked into Madison Square Garden on Thursday.<\/p>\n

He\u2019d visited America\u2019s Most Famous Arena once earlier this season \u2014 way back on Oct. 24, when he watched from the bench as his Celtics lost handily to the Knicks \u2014 but this trip was different. It would be his first time playing on New York\u2019s home floor since he ruptured his Achilles there just under 11 months earlier.<\/p>\n

\u201cNervousness, anxiousness,\u201d Tatum said after morning shootaround, standing feet from where the injury occurred. \u201cAll the things you probably would expect from the last time I played here.\u201d<\/p>\n

Tatum could have chosen not to play Thursday, to put off this particular mental hurdle until a potential Celtics-Knicks playoff rematch. He\u2019s not yet cleared to play back-to-back nights, he said, so he could have opted to suit up Friday night, instead, when Boston will host the New Orleans Pelicans back home at TD Garden in its penultimate game of the regular season.<\/p>\n

After Tuesday\u2019s home win over the Charlotte Hornets<\/a>, Tatum admitted he was \u201cnot thrilled\u201d about revisiting the site<\/a> of the most harrowing moment of his basketball career \u2014 before quickly confirming that he did, in fact, plan to suit up against New York.<\/p>\n

The Celtics, who can clinch the No. 2 seed in the Eastern Conference by winning any of their final three games, listed their four other starters as questionable for the Knicks clash. Top scorer Jaylen Brown (Achilles tendonitis) was eventually ruled out<\/a>. Why wasn\u2019t Tatum part of that group?<\/p>\n

\u201cI think you just decide to play today,\u201d he said Thursday. \u201cI could have sat out and played tomorrow, but I think it\u2019s just deciding to face the challenge head-on and put my uniform on tonight.\u201d<\/p>\n

Tatum has played in all but two games since his March 6 season debut, averaging just shy of a double-double (21.6 points, 9.8 rebounds, 5.1 assists and 1.4 steals). Initially frustrated that he wasn\u2019t playing at his usual All-NBA standard<\/a>, he\u2019s steadily regained his explosiveness, dialed in his outside shot and stuffed the stat sheet for the Celtics at both ends of the floor.<\/p>\n

Over his last five games entering Thursday, Tatum shot 40.9% from 3-point range and ranked 10th in the league in points scored per game on drives, per NBA player tracking. He\u2019s also grabbed the third-most defensive rebounds since his return, trailing only Nikola Jokic and Victor Wembanyama.<\/p>\n

\u201cI feel like I\u2019m in a good spot,\u201d Tatum said. \u201cI think I honestly feel better than I thought I would coming back, the way that I\u2019m progressing and coming back after each game. So that\u2019s positive, and I just continue to try to stack really good days.\u201d<\/p>\n

Though he feels better than expected, Tatum said he\u2019s \u201cnot really\u201d surprised by his immediate production.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat was a reason why I came back,\u201d he said. \u201cDuring rehab, when I was scrimmaging, I was starting to feel like myself. I didn\u2019t want to come back and be, like, a super shell of myself. And I\u2019m not all the way there yet, but it was important that when I came back, that I would be able to climb up the ladder relatively quickly.\u201d<\/p>\n

Another factor that spurred his midseason comeback, Tatum said, was the Celtics\u2019 strong play without him.<\/p>\n

He was motivated to rejoin a team that, unlike the defending East champion Indiana Pacers, who cratered after losing central star Tyrese Haliburton to an Achilles tear in last year\u2019s NBA Finals, kept itself in championship contention by getting a career year from Brown and massive leaps from its large group of previously unproven contributors (Neemias Queta, Baylor Scheierman, Jordan Walsh, Hugo Gonzalez, etc.).<\/p>\n

\u201cBefore I came back, we had a team meeting,\u201d Tatum said. \u201cI just talked to the team about thanking them for helping me in my recovery process. The way that they attacked this year, how well they played, the success that they\u2019ve had this year, obviously was a motivating factor with me every single day we had. So yeah, that was a big part of it, not taking opportunity for granted.<\/p>\n

\u201cKnowing that (I was) coming back to a team that has a chance to compete for a championship was a big part of it.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"NEW YORK \u2014 Jayson Tatum felt a sense of unease as he walked into Madison Square Garden on…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":706849,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3766],"tags":[7,45,75,3798,46,77,83693,88458,88298,6],"class_list":{"0":"post-706848","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-jayson-tatum","14":"tag-jayson-tatum-celtics","15":"tag-jayson-tatum-knicks","16":"tag-jayson-tatum-msg","17":"tag-nba"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/116376600884057470","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/706848","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=706848"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/706848\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/706849"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=706848"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=706848"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=706848"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}