The Boston Celtics are fighting for their playoff seeding. Last night, they not only lost to the Portland Trail Blazers 129-119, but two of their stars also left the game with apparent injuries. With less than a minute in the game, Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown had quite the collision. Brown would go to the locker room hopping on one leg while Tatum would limp on his own power.
The collision was scary for Celtics and NBA fans as a whole. Now, Boston sits in 7th place in the East. This would put them in the play-in tournament, but the East is hotly contested between the 4-7 seeds. The fourth-place Knicks are only 2.5 games above the Celtics. With each team playing a handful of games, a strong run or a collapse could doom multiple teams.
#Celtics Jaylen Brown goes down with an ankle injury and heads to the locker room. pic.twitter.com/6DYjcCqKF5
— Celtics News (@CelticsNewsNBA) May 3, 2021
Mistake here trying to watch in real-time – was Brown’s right leg that he couldn’t put any weight on. Either way, awful moment for the Celtics to have their two best players collide like that. Hopefully they are both OK. https://t.co/NU8IHdMjrl
— Tim Bontemps (@TimBontemps) May 3, 2021
If both miss significant time down this stretch, the Celtics are almost destined for the play-in tournament. That would lead to a harder path to the Eastern Conference Finals for a team that has the talent to do it but hasn’t been able to put it together this season. Not to mention if the two stars miss time into the playoffs.
That all remains speculation at the moment with no announcement on any test or further word on the potential injuries. The collision will replay in fans’ minds if it leads to long-term implications. For now, let’s hope that this is cautionary and the two will be back to playing at the level they had been for the month of April.
Tatum is fresh off his 60-point scoring night. Boston will need his elite talent to make an impact in the postseason.
CJ McCollum would light up the Celtics with 33 points and help lead the Trail Blazers in their win.
