Jayson Tatum injury headlines Game 4 loss to Knicks

Down three games to one in their second-round series against the Knicks, the Celtics will be playing for their season on Wednesday night. They got to this point by inexcusably blowing double-digit leads in the second half of all three of their losses to Jalen Brunson and the Knicks, too.

But, somehow, all of that feels meaningless given the uncertainty surrounding Jayson Tatum following his horrifying-looking fourth-quarter injury Monday night at Madison Square Garden.

In addition to being unable to put any weight on his right leg as he was helped back to the locker room, Tatum was also seen on the ESPN broadcast being wheeled to the room in a wheelchair. This did not seem precautionary, either, with a visibly and undeniably distraught Tatum burying his face in his hands as he went for further medical examination.

And the silence on Tatum's status after the game felt downright deafening.

"No, not yet," Celtics head coach Joe Mazzulla said when asked if he had an update on Tatum following the loss. "I know it’s a lower-body injury, he’s gonna get an MRI [Tuesday]. He’s with the doctors now.

"We’ll get the MRI [Tuesday] and see what it is."

Given the way Tatum went down, it's easy to assume the worst and fear that it's an injury involving Tatum's Achilles. After the loss, that 'A' word came up during Mazzulla's postgame conference with the media, asking if it was related to the Achilles or if there was some contact on the play.

"I have no idea," Mazzulla admitted. "I got back there, talked to the medical staff, they told me it's a lower-body injury and they're gonna get an MRI tomorrow. We'll see where it goes from there.

"Obviously, you're always worried about someone's health, so the fact that he got carried off... he's the type of guy that gets right up and he didn't. We'll know tomorrow exactly what it is, but yeah, it's tough to watch a guy like him get carried off like that."

Prior to the injury, Tatum was doing everything he could to power the Celtics to what would've been a series-tying victory, with a game-high 42 points along with seven makes from beyond the arc. Had the Celtics been able to work their way back into the game and finish the Knicks off with a win, Tatum's performance would've been talked about as one of the greatest playoff games by a Celtic in recent memory, and would've been up there for one of the most historic road playoff performances at MSG.

Instead, his teammates were left to talk about the health of their star player.

"The loss is the loss," Al Horford said following the Game 4 defeat. "More importantly, it’s Jayson I’m worried about."

“It’s tough," echoed Jaylen Brown. "There’s not really a lot to say. We didn’t say much [after the game]. It felt like there wasn’t a lot to say. Obviously, with JT, everybody’s concerned about him."

Given the downright somber feel of the C's locker room, it's hard to imagine that Tatum will be on the court when the Celtics fight to keep their season alive with Wednesday's Game 5 at TD Garden. But without a choice, the Celtics will do what they can to soldier on in pursuit of extending their year.

“We’ll take the night and get back up tomorrow," Brown said. "Tomorrow’s a new day and we'll go from there.”