Last night, Jayson Tatum made his return to the Boston Celtics' lineup after a 10-month absence due to last year's season-ending Achilles' heel injury. Amazingly, the rest of the Celtics are a significantly improved team from when he left them, and while some were predicting they might tank this season to get a good draft pick for 2026-27, they're instead in first place in their division and second in the Eastern Conference. They have the best defense in the NBA, giving up an average of only 107.0 points per game, with an average winning margin of 7.5 points per game, second only to Oklahoma City's 11.1.
As well as the Celtics had been playing, I had been thinking that it might be better to let the remaining team finish the season without him this year to maximize his healing and be assured that he was 100% ready to play at the start of next season. But Celtics GM Brad Stevens showed that he's all in for this season by bringing Tatum back now with time to get in the groove and rediscover his new and improved teammates before the playoffs start.
Last night, Tatum scored 15 points and grabbed 12 rebounds, made seven assists, and had one steal. Center Neemias Queta had a double double, too, scoring 16 points and snagging 15 rebounds. Mr. Brown led the team with 24 points and Mr. White had 20. Payton Pritchard scored 18 points off the bench.
The bad news is that backup center Nikola Vučević fractured his ring finger in the first quarter and only played 1:00 minute of last night's game. He underwent surgery today and will be reevaluated in three to four weeks. The team is confident he'll be back in the lineup in time for the playoffs, if not sooner.
With 19 games left to the regular season, the Celtics are 42-21. Their next game is at Cleveland against the Cavs (39-24) on Sunday afternoon (1:00 pm) and will be covered by ABC.
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