Jayson Tatum injury update: Joe Mazzulla gives initial news on Celtics star’s status

Boston Celtics coach Joe Mazzula gave the early update after star forward Jayson Tatum left with a scary-looking injury Monday in Game 4 of the Eastern Conference semifinals against the New York Knicks. Mazzula told reporters postgame that Tatum suffered a “lower-body” injury and will have an MRI on Tuesday to determine the severity.

Tatum suffered the injury late in the fourth quarter of an eventual 121-113 loss for the Celtics. He went down while attempting to retrieve and loose ball and immediately grabbed at his right ankle. Eventually, Celtics personnel members helped Tatum to his feet before carrying back to locker room. The ESPN broadcast showed Tatum sitting in a wheelchair in the tunnel.

The Celtics star finished with a game-high 42 points, eight rebounds and four assists, doing everything he could to keep his team in the game. He tied Larry Bird and John Havlicek for the most 40-point playoff games (5) by a Celtic.

With the loss on Monday, Boston now finds itself down 3-1 in the series against the Knicks. But the more pressing concern now becomes the health of Tatum. Mazzula expressed worry for the fact that Tatum was unable to walk off under his own power, indicating the serious feeling around the injury.

“I was obviously worried about someone’s health,” the coach said, via Noa Dalzell of Celtics on CLNS. The fact that he got carried off — he’s the type of guy that gets right up. We’ll know tomorrow exactly what it is, but it’s tough to watch a guy like him get carried off like that.”

The Celtics will hope for the best with Game 5 looming on Wednesday. However, the initial feeling would seem to be that they might be without Jayson Tatum as they try to come back in this series and defend their title from last season. If that is the case, their chances of completing that comeback would look even more grim.

Jalen Brunson led the way for the Knicks to the tune of 39 points on 14-of-25 shooting. Karl-Anthony Towns, Mikal Bridges and OG Anunoby all scored 20 or more points. New York is one win away from advancing to the Eastern Conference finals for the first time since the 1999-2000 campaign and will have a chance to close it out in Game 5 at 7 p.m. ET on Wednesday in Boston.