In absolutely devastating news, Jayson Tatum has officially been diagnosed with a ruptured Achilles tendon, an injury he suffered in the final moments of the Boston Celtics’ Game 4 loss to the New York Knicks. Tatum already underwent a successful surgery to repair the tendon, and will now be sidelined indefinitely with the expectation for the healing and return-to-play process to go well into next season, if not longer.
As dire as things feel, Boston’s season is not yet over. Their backs are against the wall down 3-1 in the series, but there is still basketball to be played.
And it’s time for the reigning Finals MVP to take over. It’s time for Jaylen Brown.
So far Brown is averaging 20.5 points, 6.5 rebounds, 3.3 assists, 0.8 steals, 0.3 blocks and 3.5 turnovers in this series against the Knicks. He hasn’t been very efficient either, with 37.7/22.6/70.8 shooting splits. He’s far from the only one who has been underwhelming this round, but with Jayson down, the burden now falls on him to lead this team to victory.
It’s unfamiliar territory. Jaylen has only played in one playoff game without Jayson since Tatum came into the league, that being Game 2 of the previous round matchup against the Orlando Magic. Brown was fantastic in that game, and gave Boston everything they needed to get the win. He played nearly 42 minutes while putting up 36 points, 10 rebounds, 5 assists, and 1 steal on 12/19 shooting from the floor, 5/7 from three. With that performance, he led both teams in points and rebounds, propelling the Celtics to a 109-100 victory.
Photo by Maddie Meyer/Getty Images
The stakes are higher now, though. Despite how anyone may feel about how this series has gone, the fact of the matter is that New York has been good enough to take the series lead over Boston. There is no more room for error.
It feels very similar to a game which no Celtics fan wants to remember: Game 7 of the 2023 Eastern Conference Finals, Boston Celtics versus Miami Heat at TD Garden. On nearly the first play of the game, Jayson Tatum went up for a layup, and when he came down it was right on top of Cody Martin’s foot, resulting in a severe ankle sprain for JT. He stayed in the game, but he was clearly laboring with each step, and was really just a shell of himself.
It was a game where the rest of the Celtics needed to step up and take over for Jayson. They let him down tremendously, and Boston’s season ended that night.
Jaylen Brown specifically received a lot of scrutiny for his inability to shoulder the load in that game, justifiably so. He finished the game with 19 points, 8 rebounds, 5 assists, 1 steal, 2 blocks, and a whopping 8 turnovers. He shot 8/23 from the floor and 1/9 from three.
A year later, he stepped up in a big way during the Celtics 23-24 playoff run to help them secure Banner 18 and win the Eastern Conference Finals MVP and NBA Finals MVP. Now, Brown is without his partner again. His name has already started circulating in trade rumors again before the season has even ended. Everyone is counting Boston out. It’s time for him to show the world why he earned that hardware.
It’s not going to be easy – it never is. But now it’s win or go home. Let’s see what you got, JB.
