Jayson Tatum missed the first playoff game of his eight-year NBA career Wednesday night.
After initially listing Tatum as doubtful, the Celtics ruled out their All-NBA superstar for Game 2 of their first-round playoff series against the Orlando Magic at TD Garden.
Tatum is dealing with a right distal radius bone bruise, which he suffered late in Boston’s Game 1 victory on Sunday. Magic guard Kentavious Caldwell-Pope fouled Tatum on a fourth-quarter dunk attempt, and he landed awkwardly on his right wrist.
“He’s got a bone bruise,” Celtics head coach Joe Mazzulla said before Wednesday’s game. “The progression was yesterday he was able to do a little bit with the team. Today, a little bit on court. He’s day to day. We’ll see how he is when he gets here, but I know he’s doing everything he can to put himself in position to play. We’re just going to try to take it day to day.”
Game 3 is Friday night in Orlando.
The Celtics went 8-2 in games Tatum missed during the regular season, but both of the losses came in road games against the Magic, including one in which Mazzulla sat his entire starting lineup to prepare for the postseason. In Sunday’s series opener, Tatum struggled as a shooter (8-for-22, 1-for-8 from 3-point range, 0-for-4 on free throws) but was productive in other areas, finishing with 17 points, 14 rebounds, four assists, one steal and one block in 40 minutes as the Celtics won 103-86.
Tatum led the Celtics in points, rebounds, assists and minutes played this season.
“He’s such an unbelievable scoring threat,” Magic head coach Jamahl Mosley said. “Obviously, other guys pick up the slack there. Usually in those games, it’s Al Horford who gets the nod, and so then there’s size, there’s rebounding, there’s switchability that Tatum still possesses. But just his veteran presence on the court changes the game for them, as well. We’ve seen that before, but the ability is that the other guys pick up the slack even more so in that case.”
Before Wednesday’s DNP, Tatum had played in all 114 of Boston’s playoff games since he entered the NBA in 2017, averaging 39.0 minutes per game.