Boston Celtics
“I’m not changing my pick from the Cavaliers.”
Jayson Tatum returned to action on Friday night. (Matthew J. Lee/Globe Staff)
March 7, 2026 | 11:06 AM
3 minutes to read
Jayson Tatum might not have played his A game in his first game back from an Achilles tear, but the Celtics star might have shown enough in Friday’s win over the Mavericks that he could potentially shake up the title race.
However, Charles Barkley wants to see more from Tatum and the Celtics before anointing Boston as the favorite to win the Eastern Conference. While Barkley was impressed by Tatum in his return, he said he still has the Cavaliers as his team to beat in the East.
“The East, what can we even compare it to? You’ve got the second-best record in the Eastern Conference and you get an All-NBA player back,” Barkley said on Friday’s “Inside the NBA.” “I don’t know if we’ve ever seen anything like it. I’m not changing my pick from the Cavaliers.
“If I’m the Cavs, I’m like, ‘OK, this is great. They’re coming here on Sunday. That’s going to be fun.’”
Barkley predicted the Cavaliers to win the East in the weeks following their trade for star guard James Harden in February. Cleveland has gone 8-1 when Harden’s been in the lineup since the trade, getting wins over the Nuggets, Hornets, Knicks, and Pistons during that stretch.
Of course, the Celtics have also been on an impressive run as of late. Boston’s 22 wins since Jan. 1 are tied for the most in the NBA, with the Spurs being the only other team with that many.
Tatum didn’t seem to disrupt the flow the Celtics have been in during his return on Friday night, either. Even though Tatum missed his first six shots, none of them felt forced and seemed to be within the flow of the offense. He wound up making six of his final nine shots, scoring 15 points in the game. His first bucket was a putback dunk and he added a couple of side-step 3-pointers.
What might have been the most impressive part of Tatum’s performance, though, was his ability to contribute in areas beyond scoring. He was active on the boards early, finishing with 12 rebounds. He also had seven assists, making the right reads and setting up teammates throughout the night.
As Tatum seemingly found his rhythm as the game went along, fellow “Inside the NBA” analyst Kenny Smith liked how the Celtics’ star closed out his performance.
“You wouldn’t know [it was his first game back from injury],” Smith said. “In the back of the mind, when you’re a great player, you don’t want to have [the thought], ‘Man, I’m not what I used to be.’ He’s going to go home tonight not feeling that way.”
Friday marked 298 days since Tatum suffered the Achilles tear, returning to action quicker than many others who’ve had the same injury. As it appeared in recent weeks that Tatum was set to return this season, there were some debates about whether that was a smart idea or not.
Barkley thought that discussion was foolishness, giving Tatum kudos for wanting to return to play this season.
“I get so frustrated when I hear these idiots, fools, and jackasses on television talking about [Tatum shouldn’t come back this season],” Barkley said. “I don’t understand [the talk] of whether he should comeback or not. Man, if you’re healthy, you comeback.
“We are the luckiest dudes in the world to play something stupid like basketball. If you are healthy, you should play. That goes back to that BS about load management. We ain’t no damn nurses, doctors, firemen, police, or someone in the armed services. We’re running up and down the basketball court for 35 minutes a night. You hear these guys saying, ‘He should sit out the whole year.’ Not if he’s healthy. He got paid when he was hurt. If you getting paid, you go to work.
“If he comeback next year, he still has the mental thing you’ve got to get through.”
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