Boston Celtics star forward Jayson Tatum suffered an ankle injury in the team’s 113-95 Monday night victory over the Sacramento Kings.
“He seems to be doing okay,” said Celtics head coach Joe Mazzulla after the game. “I didn’t see the play, but they made the right call… (He’s) taking care of it right now.”
With less than four minutes left in the third quarter, Tatum hit a three-pointer over Kings center Domantas Sabonis. While coming down from the shot, Tatum landed on Sabonis’ foot, causing him to immediately fall to the floor. Sabonis was then issued a Flagrant 1 foul.
Tatum lay on the ground in pain before he made his way over to the Celtics’ bench. He then returned to the game to make one of two free throw attempts before going back to the locker room.
Jayson Tatum leaves game with ankle injury 🙏 pic.twitter.com/XPjsdrmHsR
— House of Highlights (@HoHighlights) March 25, 2025
According to ESPN’s Ramona Shelburne, Tatum said that his ankle was “just sore.”
“I literally just asked him how he was doing, and he said, ‘Okay,'” Mazzulla said after the game. “He’ll do anything and everything to make sure he gets better.”
Domantas Sabonis has been dealing with his own ankle injury, which has limited him to just four starts in the Kings’ last 13 games.
“I feel horrible,” said Sabonis during the postgame press conference. “I’ve had a crazy month myself, personally, and you never want that to happen. I apologize.”
Bad timing for the Celtics
This is not a great time for Boston to be dealing with an injury to its best player. There are only ten games left before the regular season ends for the Cs.
Thankfully, there’s a silver lining. Boston has already clinched a playoff spot, so they don’t need to rush Tatum back before the postseason begins.
More importantly, the Celtics have shown that they can still be an effective team without Tatum in the starting lineup. In games where Tatum has been held under 20 points, Boston actually has a winning record (7-6). When Tatum has been held to just 15 points, the Celtics have a 2-1 record this season. Boston clearly has the firepower to weather the storm until the postseason begins.
Joe Mazzulla says Jayson Tatum seems to be doing OK after spraining his left ankle. He later added, “I know he’ll do anything and everything to make sure he gets better.” pic.twitter.com/cxIuMVkC3w
— Taylor Snow (@taylorcsnow) March 25, 2025
The problem is that we don’t know the severity of the ankle sprain. According to Mass General Brigham, a Grade One sprain can take one to three weeks to recover from, allowing him to return just before the playoffs start.
If it ends up being a Grade Two or Grade Three ankle sprain, then this could be an issue. Grade Two sprains need three to six weeks of recovery time. Grade Threes/high ankle sprains could require several months to fully recover from.
A Grade One or Grade Two sprain would be ideal for Boston. They can still stay afloat and hold on to the second seed in the Eastern Conference, even with Tatum riding the bench. I would even go as far as to say that they would win their first-round playoff matchup without Tatum. But if Tatum is forced to miss any more time than that, this could end up being the turning point of the Celtics’ season. I don’t expect that to be the case, though. I am sure he will return to the court in a couple of weeks.
