Boston Celtics fans held their collective breath just four minutes into Tuesday's game against the Golden State Warriors at Chase Center.
Celtics star Jayson Tatum sprained his left ankle at the 7:55 mark of the first quarter when he stepped on the foot of Warriors guard Brandin Podziemski. Tatum immediately hobbled to the locker room after the play.
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Fortunately for the Celtics, Tatum returned to the start the second quarter. But while he filled up the stat sheet with eight rebounds, seven assists and two steals, the injury appeared to limit his explosiveness on offense, as Tatum finished with just 15 points on 5 of 17 shooting in Boston's 132-126 overtime loss.
When asked about his ankle injury after the game, Tatum admitted it impacted his play.
"I mean, it's swollen," Tatum said. "I just sprained my ankle in the first quarter. Stepped on somebody's foot, rolled on it, and went to the back to get it looked at.
"Not to make any excuses, but when you sprain your ankle, it swells up and it's just stiff. It just makes it tougher to move. But I was still out there, so I feel like if you go out there and play, you can't make any excuses."
Tatum actually had the ball in his hands with a chance to win in the final seconds of regulation, but missed a contested 3-pointer with Jonathan Kuminga in his airspace to allow the game to reach overtime.
"Could I have made it? Yeah. Could I have gotten a better shot? Yeah," Tatum said. "Anytime you miss or lose, you always look at things differently, what you could've done better."
The question now is whether Tatum will play on the second night of a back-to-back against the Sacramento Kings on Wednesday night. Tatum is one of three Celtics who haven't missed a game this season (along with Sam Hauser in Payton Pritchard) and has been vocal about playing in as many games as possible, but it might be wise to hold him out of Wednesday's contest.
The Celtics don't play until Saturday after Wednesday's game, so they could give Tatum's ankle a full three days to heal if they rest him in Sacramento. Tip-off for Celtics-Kings is set for 10 p.m. ET on NBC Sports Boston.
UPDATE (4:15 p.m. ET): Tatum has been ruled out of Wednesday's Celtics-Kings game with an ankle injury.
