BOSTON — Boston Celtics star Jayson Tatum had surgery Tuesday to repair a ruptured right Achilles tendon that will sideline him for the remainder of the playoffs, the team announced.
The Celtics announced the extent of Tatum’s injury and the surgery a day after the six-time All-Star went down in the team’s 121-113 Game 4 loss to the New York Knicks, putting both the hopes of the defending champions repeating and Tatum’s playing status for next season in doubt.
They did not give a timetable for his return but said a full recovery was expected.
When Kevin Durant tore his Achilles tendon during the 2019 NBA Finals, he wound up missing the entire 2019-20 season.
The 27-year-old Tatum leads the Celtics in points (28.1), rebounds (11.5) and assists (5.4) per game for the second straight postseason.
The Knicks lead the Celtics 3-1 in their Eastern Conference semifinal series. Game 5 is on Wednesday night in Boston.
Tatum was carried off the court with 2:58 remaining in Monday night’s game. The Celtics had just turned the ball over, and as Tatum moved for the loose ball, his leg gave out and he went down. He buried his face in a towel in obvious pain while grabbing at his leg above the ankle after the noncontact injury.
Tatum scored 42 points, his highest total during these playoffs and one of the best all-around postseason performances of his career, before he was hurt.
The injury was Tatum’s second this postseason. He missed Game 2 of the Celtics’ 4-1 first-round series win over the Orlando Magic with a bone bruise in his right wrist. It was the first time he missed a playoff game in his career.
Now Tatum’s teammates will face a daunting task that few teams have pulled off if they want to break an NBA-record six-season drought without a repeat champion.
Teams holding a 3-1 lead in the NBA playoffs have gone on to win 95.6% of the time, with only 13 teams in 293 tries coming back from the deficit to win the series.
“Obviously we all realize in our heads what this could mean,” Celtics center Kristaps Porzingis said Monday. “This part of the sport — it’s tough. We have to move forward. He don’t want us to be over here sad and not play our best basketball.”
To become the 14th team to overcome a 3-1 deficit, the Celtics will need big performances from a roster that has several players who have dealt with injuries this postseason.
All-Star Jaylen Brown entered the playoffs dealing with a right knee issue that has slowed him at times. Porzingis also has been slowed at times by the lingering effects of a viral illness that sidelined him for stretches in the second half of the season.
Brown said Monday that his confidence remains high.
“Get ready for the next one,” Brown said. “Get ready to fight. Get ready to come out on our home floor and do what we need to do. That’s the goal. Still the goal. We’ve got enough in this locker room. So I believe in my guys.”
Regardless of how this series or the rest of the playoffs plays out for the Celtics, Tatum’s injury likely will alter how the franchise confronts this coming offseason.
Including this year, the Celtics payroll will be over the salary cap and make them a luxury-tax team for the third straight season. That means they will be hit with the “repeater tax” for being over the cap threshold in three out of four seasons.
Their current payroll for next season is on track to come in around $225 million, which would mean a tax bill next year of almost $280 million. The combined potential $500 million total price tag would be a league record.
It’s unclear whether the team’s incoming new ownership will want to keep paying those hefty taxes to maintain the current roster after agreeing to a purchase in March that is expected to have a final price of a minimum of $6.1 billion.
Tatum signed an NBA-record five-year, $314 million contract in July that will begin next season. Brown is playing under a five-year, $304 million deal that kicked in this season.
That means trimming player salary is a possibility ownership could explore this summer.
And with Tatum possibly missing all of next season, it could accelerate the front office’s timeline for reworking the current roster with an eye toward the future.