Celtics star Jayson Tatum missed Wednesday night’s game against the Kings due to a left ankle sprain he suffered in Tuesday’s loss to the Warriors.
Celtics coach Joe Mazzulla said Tatum is day-to-day with the injury and described Tatum’s ankle as “sore” and “swollen,” but did not offer a timetable on when he might return. The C’s next play on Saturday against the Clippers.
“He loves to play. I’m sure he would do anything to play,” Mazzulla told reporters pregame in Sacramento. “But it was obviously sore, obviously it was swollen. You could tell it limited him during the game. He did a good job of fighting through it, but it’s a day-to-day thing and we’ll see how it goes.”
Tatum suffered the injury in the first quarter of Tuesday’s loss when he stepped on the foot of Golden State’s Brandin Podziemski. He immediately hobbled off the court and straight to the locker room, and returned for the start of the second quarter. But he was clearly not himself for the rest of the game as he finished with a season-low 15 points on 5-for-17 shooting.
“Not to make any excuses, but when you sprain your ankle it kind of swells up and it’s just stiff,” Tatum said on Tuesday. “So it’s tough to … it just makes it a little tougher to move. But I still was out there, so I feel like if you go out there and play, you can’t make any excuses.”
Wednesday marked the first game Tatum has missed this season after playing in the Celtics’ first 26 games. Sam Hauser got the start in Tatum’s place.
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