The Boston Celtics have been one of the NBA’s best stories this season, occupying the No. 2 seed in the Eastern Conference without All-NBA F Jayson Tatum. As the weekend approaches, could Tatum’s season debut be doing the same?
On Friday night, the Celtics host the visiting Dallas Mavericks at TD Garden, with tip-off set for 7:00 p.m. ET on ESPN. Ahead of the East-West showdown, new details surrounding Tatum’s ongoing recovery from a ruptured Achilles tendon add insight into his potential availability.
Without further ado, let’s dive into the latest Jayson Tatum injury update and which Boston player’s PrizePicks projections could be impacted, as well as a potential Celtics starting lineup vs. the Mavericks.
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Jayson Tatum Injury Update: When Will Tatum Return to Celtics?
Per a Thursday afternoon report from Shams Charania of ESPN, Tatum plans to make his return to play soon. The six-time All-Star forward “could” make his 2025-26 debut against the Mavericks.
In a quote-tweet of his original post, Charania doubled down, adding that “there’s an expectation” for Tatum to play on Friday. He’ll let the Celtics know his final decision “over the next day.”
Per the official NBA injury report for Thursday, Tatum is listed as questionable with a designation for his right Achilles repair. If he’s indeed active on Friday, it’ll be his first live reps since May 12, 2025.
Jayson Tatum Return: Which Celtics Player Could Be Most Impacted?
Getting Tatum back would be a massive boost for the Celtics. Head coach Joe Mazzulla has his team humming, owning a 41-21 record and sitting five games behind the Detroit Pistons out East. Tatum is widely regarded as a potential ceiling-raiser for an upcoming postseason run.
In 72 regular-season outings in 2024-25, Tatum posted per-game averages of 26.8 points, 8.7 rebounds, and 6.0 assists. Finishing fourth in MVP voting, he enjoyed an excellent campaign.
All-Star F Jaylen Brown has picked up the slack in Tatum’s absence this year, averaging 28.9 PPG on 48.0% shooting. With that said, it’s worth monitoring how Brown’s workload changes once Tatum returns.
According to databallr, in 748 minutes without Tatum last season, Brown’s usage rate spiked 6.1%, albeit on 3.1% worse true shooting. In the playoffs, his usage increased 1.1% in 139 Tatum-less minutes with a 9.1% jump in TS%.
Reestablishing a power balance could prove tricky for the C’s, but it’s a great problem to have.
Projecting Celtics’ Starting Lineup vs. Mavericks
If Tatum does play on Friday and kicks off the game in the lineup, it could be more ceremonial than anything. Mazzulla and company could ease their superstar back into the fold, especially given the runway he has over the next month and change.
A recent example of an Achilles-related return is New Orleans Pelicans G Dejounte Murray. He’s started all four games since debuting this year, albeit on just 25.0 minutes each night, far below his 2024-25 average of 32.6.
Per Cleaning the Glass, the Celtics’ most-used lineup includes guards Payton Pritchard and Derrick White, Brown, F Sam Hauser and C Neemias Queta. Their second-most popular configuration swaps Hauser out for F Jordan Walsh. In recent games, guard Baylor Scheierman has joined the starting five.
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Make Mavericks vs. Celtics Picks on PrizePicks
Ahead of the NBA playoffs, it appears that Celtics F Jayson Tatum is closing in on his return from an Achilles injury. That adds yet another avenue for hoops fans to target player projections in the near future.
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