Can the Celtics comeback to beat the Knicks without Jayson Tatum?

The biggest story in the second round of the NBA Playoffs has come in the Eastern Conference semifinal series between the Boston Celtics and New York Knicks. In the fourth game of the series, in a 121-113 Knicks win over the Celtics at Madison Square Garden on Monday, the face of the Celtics’s franchise, forward Jayson Tatum of St. Louis, Missouri, went down with a non-contact lower body injury. It was soon determined that Tatum had a ruptured right Achilles tendon. On Tuesday, Tatum had surgery that will force him not only to miss the remainder of the 2025 NBA Playoffs, but is also expected to miss the majority of the 2025-26 season, possibly all, according to Jack Maloney of CBS Sports. 

The Tatum injury is obviously a gigantic blow to the Celtics. Anyway you look at it, he is the face of the franchise even though it was Jaylen Brown who won the NBA Finals most valuable player award last season.

In 2024-25, Tatum led the Celtics in the regular season with 26.8 points per game, 8.7 rebounds per game and six assists per game. The bottom line is the Celtics supporting cast is simply not good enough to provide the necessary offense to get the Celtics back in the series, a series the Knicks lead three games to one.

The Knicks have the more confident group, and definitely have the more dangerous starting five at the moment. Without Tatum, Boston does not match up well against a Knicks starting group that contains Mikal Bridges, Jalen Brunson, OG Anunoby, Josh Hart and Karl-Anthony Towns. Game five is Wednesday night.

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