The key word for Joe Mazzulla and the Celtics on Wednesday, as they grappled with the fallout from a potentially franchise-altering injury while also trying to keep their season alive, was “balance.”
Balance between supporting Jayson Tatum, who underwent season-ending surgery Tuesday in New York City to repair a ruptured Achilles, and preparing for a win-or-go-home Game 5 against the Knicks at TD Garden.
Balance, as Mazzulla put it, between “the human, empathetic side” and “the tactical side.”
“It’s a balance, right?” the Celtics head coach said before Wednesday’s game. “To be empathetic to a brother of yours being in the position he’s in, and at the same time, we step into the arena tonight in a must-win situation. So you have to find that balance of understanding the importance of him and how that hurt, and at the same time use some of that toward the situation that we’re in and focus on the things that impact winning. So it’s a balance of both of those things. You can’t have one without the other. You have to be able to do both of those things.”
Tatum did not travel home from New York with the team after suffering his injury late in Game 4, but Mazzulla said he’s spoken with his star player over text. Tatum also sent a message to the team after his surgery, the details of which Mazzulla declined to share.
“He’s doing the best he can,” the coach said. “If anybody can handle it, it’s him. He sent a message to the staff and the players today, so he’s doing better.”
Down 3-1 in the Eastern Conference semifinals, the defending champion Celtics entered Wednesday needing to win three straight games without Tatum to extend their season. Barring a shockingly quick recovery, they’ll also likely be without the six-time All-Star for a large portion of next season, as well, if not all of it.
“Again, there’s two sides to this, right?” Mazzulla said. “There’s the side of focusing on who Jayson is as a person, but then there’s a basketball component of, we have a lot of great players in the locker room, and they have to be the best versions of themselves and nothing more, and then do what the game needs to put us in a position to win. So you just have to focus on those two things.”