Boston Celtics
It’s been a long journey without the star forward, but the story is far from finished.
Jayson Tatum Matthew J. Lee/Globe Staff
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The lights dimmed, the spotlights swirled, and dozens of small white lights dotted the stands at TD Garden Friday night.
The moment that Celtics fans had been waiting to hear for nearly ten months had finally arrived. Jayson Tatum strode calmly onto the parquet floor for his introduction in the Celtics stating lineup for the first time this season.
For much of the first half, Tatum looked like a player who had missed a significant amount of time. He air-balled his first 3-point attempt of the night. He tried to throw down a dunk, but the ball didn’t make it over the rim. His first six field-goal attempts were all misses.
On this night, with the Mavericks in town for a nationally televised NBA Finals rematch, Tatum’s nerves got ahold of him.
“I just felt really anxious,” Tatum said. “It’s been a long time coming just to get to this point, many nights and days that I’ve dreamed about this moment. The anticipation, the crowd – it’s been 42-and-a-half weeks since I last played in an NBA game.
“Just trying to get caught up on the speed and everything. I just kind of felt like I was a step off or moving too fast, but the game started to slow down as I started to relax a little bit.”
Once he settled in, though, he began to show flashes of his old self. A putback dunk kicked off a sequence of five straight makes. His passing was sharp, his presence on the boards impactful, and he held up well on the defensive end. He eventually blew a kiss to the crowd after he drilled a 3-pointer.
He finished three assists shy of a triple-double with 15 points, 12 rebounds, and seven assists.
His bounce didn’t look quite the same with the missed dunk and an alley-oop pass from Jaylen Brown that sailed over his head, which he and Brown shared a laugh about. But other than that and a lighter-than-usual workload (27 minutes), there wasn’t too much that looked different about his game.
Tatum shot 6-for-16 from the field, but Celtics coach Joe Mazzulla wasn’t concerned about his shooting touch. He selected good shots, the coach said, and his effort was solid.
“When he was 100 percent healthy, he’s missed six shots in a row before,” Mazzulla said. “So, I don’t think that really mattered. What I liked is just his approach. He continued to rebound, I thought he competed on the defensive end. He gave up a free-throw rebound, which we have to get better at, but I think the process and the mindset that he played with.”
It was a big night, not just for Tatum, but also for Maine native Cooper Flagg, who made his TD Garden debut against one of his idols.
“It was incredible. There’s so many levels to it,” Flagg said when asked about playing against Tatum. “He’s somebody that I idolized growing up, watching him go through levels and ranks. I watched him at Duke, and kind of to follow in his footsteps and play for [Jon] Scheyer and then obviously coming into the league is just surreal. It was really special for me to have this experience tonight.”
Before the game, Mazzulla said Tatum’s return wasn’t too different from adding a new player at the deadline. The Celtics were three-quarters of the way into the regular-season at the time of Tatum’s return. With the team sitting in second place in the Eastern Conference, Tatum’s addition comes several weeks before the upcoming playoff run, giving him time to acclimate to the revamped roster.
Tatum wasn’t at his best Friday night, but so far, his fit with the team has looked seamless. Sure, it was against the Mavericks, who dropped to 21-42 with the loss, but it was a smooth return nonetheless.
“I thought it was great. It was great having JT back,” Brown said. “I commend him being able to put himself on the line a little bit to come back and be a part of something bigger. I think that’s his mentality, so I appreciate that and I know the organization appreciates that because he didn’t have to. And nobody put pressure on him, but he wanted to be out there. It’s commendable.”
When he left the game late in the fourth quarter, the Celtics had a comfortable 25-point lead. The crowd was on its feet giving Tatum a loud ovation. Tatum walked over to the sideline and hugged Mazzulla before slapping hands with his teammates.
“For me, personally, to be around people who go through those things, I think that’s why you coach,” Mazzulla said. “I think at the end of the day, the wins and losses, you don’t really care, you’re in it to go after stuff together with people and to be a part of someone else’s story and for someone else to be a part of yours.”
This season is more than three-quarters of the way over, but the story of this year’s Celtics team is just beginning to unfold. Tatum and Brown, along with a new cast of characters, are gearing up for another postseason. The heat is about to go up a couple of notches.
The wait for Tatum’s return has ended. New challenges are looming. A familiar face has shone under the spotlight once again.
“This was a huge step,” Tatum said. “I’ve still got a long way to go, but this was a really big step for me.”
Khari A. Thompson
Khari Thompson covers professional sports for Boston.com. Before joining the team in 2022, Khari covered college football for The Clarion Ledger in Jackson, Miss.
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