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The Boston Celtics are now 2-0 down against the mighty Brooklyn Nets in their first-round series matchup following Tuesday's disheartening blowout loss in the Barclays Center. Celtics star Jayson Tatum just did not look right, and apparently, a concerning injury from Game 1 could have played a key role in his poor performance on Tuesday night.
According to TNT's Jared Greenberg, Tatum suffered a groin injury in Game 1 and the Celtics star was not 100 percent (h/t Celtics Blog). This could have been the reason why Tatum was uncharacteristically inefficient on Tuesday, going 3-of-12 shooting for just nine points in 21 minutes played.
Tatum took a hard foul from Nets superstar Kevin Durant in Game 1, and this could have been the play wherein the former suffered the injury:
Injury or not, Tatum just couldn't get things going on Tuesday night. He was off to a poor start, and he was never able to recover. To be fair, the same can be said for the entire Celtics squad. The Nets outscored Boston 40-26 in the first quarter and they never looked back.
Incidentally, Tatum also took a knock in the third quarter of Tuesday's game. He got poked in the eye during a loose ball play and he quickly exited the game after the injury. Tatum went to the locker room but was able to return to the bench shortly after. However, he was unable to return to the game due to the injury. The game was over at that point so that surely factored in on Boston's decision to have Tatum sit out the rest of the contest.
Tatum is banged up at this point which clearly does not bode well for Boston's chances moving forward.
