“I have no words at the moment: 'Celtics stumbled to Jayson Tatum injury, but vow to be ready for game 5

New York – Jaylen Brown stared in a room full of reporters, and everyone was waiting for him to explain the inexplicable. Rigid through us.

It was a thousand yard-view one that visited the podium in the Madison Square Garden after the training table in the locker room of the secured. Perhaps until autumn 2017, when Brown first set up next to a rookie called Jayson Tatum and formed a partnership that would define the leading franchise of the NBA for most of the decade.

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This partnership would bring the Celtics to their difficult 18th NBA championship and enable them to continue to fight for titles in the coming years. Sometimes, however, even the best plans can escape through a wrong step.

“It is difficult,” said Brown after the victory of Knicks 121-113 in the game 4 of the semi-finals of the Eastern Conference 2025 on Monday evening. “There is not much to say.”

With regard to the communication of new information, the strictly speaking was true.

Brown had not spoken to Tatum since his long -time running buddy left the fourth quarter of game 4 a little more than three minutes before the square, after Tatum had set fire after a non -contact injury, which was set up for the second time in less than a month in the global injuries. His Celtics teammates or head coach Joe Mazzulla, who could only at least offer details shortly after the last summer.

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“I know that it is an injury to the lower body,” said Mazzulla. “He will get an MRI tomorrow. He is now with the doctors. … obviously concerned about the health of someone.”

The reason for concern was late in the fourth quarter when the Celtics tried to curb the flood of a New York run, which the hosts had set up with a little more than three minutes of seven.

Tatum-a brilliant player in the middle of a brilliant night, 42 points with eight rebounds, four assists, four steals and two blocks, an untouched two-way performance searched the floor from the elbow, guarded by OG Anunoby. He went to Brown and rolled off a Pindown from Boston Guard Derrick White. But Brown did not control the pass clean and splashed freely, towards Tatum and Anunoby: a 50-50 ball to win, a decisive cross between the game.

Tatum fell around the loose ball, planted his right foot on the floor and pushed away to hit Anunoby. He never got out of the starting blocks; Instead, he broke to the ground and grabbed the back of his right ankle almost immediately.

“I thought he was just rolling his ankle,” said Knick's star Jalen Brunson, who opened his press conference and extended his thoughts and prayers to Tatum. “Of course we want to go out and compete, but when a player of his caliber goes down and he rolls in pain, you know that something is wrong … you just never want to see something like that.”

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When the garden rose in cheers to celebrate Anunoby's fast dunk to make New York's lead to nine with 3:03, Tatum remained depressed, hurt with pain and turned on the square in a circle. The Celtics training staff had to carry Tatum off the ground, with the six-time all-star placed on his right leg. He needed a wheelchair to get through the tunnel under MSG and back to the Boston cover room.

“The fact that he had to be carried away … He is the guy who gets up directly,” said Mazzulla. “Well, he didn't do it. We will know exactly what it is tomorrow. It is difficult to watch how a man how he is carried away.”

Tatum did not return to the place in game 4. The question that this series now depends on this series -and in particular the future of Tatum and the Celtics franchise -is exactly the future until it returns to the court.

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“We didn't say much,” said Brown. “I felt that we only … there wasn't much to say.”

After three minutes of playing after the exit, the Celtics in this best-of-Seven series were 3-1 a loss of their offer to repeat themselves as a NBA champions, and with the potential for big changes to their ultra-expensive squad in this off season, possibly a loss from the end of this era in the Celtics basketball. It is the existential moment that can sharpen the focus of an entire organization on a good point. So soon after Tatum went down, it seemed crazy, if not impossible, to live too much on the defensive rebound adjustments.

“I mean the loss is the loss,” said the venerable Celtics veteran Al Horford in the changing room. “You know even more important, it is Jayson that I'm worried about. And only to make sure that I am there for him. This is my priority. … It is very worrying, only from the care I have for him. What it means to us. What it means for Boston.”

“This is our brother, and they hate to see him down,” added White, who scored 23 points in the 6-of-11-3 point shooting in 43 minutes. “You know what kind of guy he is and it is difficult to see how it goes down. Obviously now … it's pretty low.”

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From a cold -blooded, practical point of view, it is not outside the area that the Celtics could hold back on Wednesday, even if Tatum is not available. In total, Boston is 9-2 without Tatum this season and defeated Orlando Magic in game 2 of the opening round, with Tatum being equipped with a wrist injury and Brown scored 36 points to keep the way.

“I mean, that's the thing: we have the talent,” said Big Man Kristaps Porziņġis, who scored seven points with four rebounds in 24 minutes when he continues to fight through illness. “We have a lot of talent, even with JT out, even if I play maybe 10 minutes and 15 minutes. We have the boys. We have shown in the past that we can [still play] Really good basketball. “

In the playoffs, however, Boston's Bellwether was Tatum. He leads the Celtics in minutes, points, rebounds, assists And steal in this post. He is just the fourth player who has ever been more than 25 points, 10 rebounds, five assists and 1.5 steals per game during a post -season on average and follows Larry Bird, Charles Barkley and LeBron James.

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Through seven playoff games, the C from Orlando and New York exceeded 12.4 points per 100 possessions with it on the square and exceeded it with him. A criminal offense in Boston stumbled against the Knicks, which finally stumbled on the bench in game 3 and in the first half of game 4, and only scored 105.3 points per 100-a rate, which would have been dead in the regular season in the NBA.

“Obviously there is no substitute for this guy,” added Porziņġ. “How, that's a great success for us, 100%.”

This goal, combined with Brunson and Co., who puts your back against the wall, is a terribly brutal one-two strike for the Celtics one emotional mammutberg, which can climb between the early morning of Tuesday morning and on Wednesday at 7 p.m.

“Yes, no question – it's a hard battle,” said Horford. “But for our group we have to turn this page quickly and do our first job to win on Wednesday. This is the way of thinking. And as a group we just have to summarize. Gather together.

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The only way to wear such a heavy weight as what is hanging above the heads of the Celtics is to share the stress.

“I mean you will be ready,” said Mazzulla. “That is exactly what they are. It was. It is the changing room we have and you will be ready.

They do it because they have no choice.

“Obviously we all felt for him at that moment, but we just have to keep going,” said Porzi. “We have to continue playing. Obviously we all recognize what this could mean. But here too this is part of sport, and it is difficult, and it is difficult to see and difficult to accept the truth. But it is what it is and we have to go with what we have now.”

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What Boston still has could be enough to extend this series-even enough to bring it into a game 7. If Tatum's injury is as bad as it seemed, it will take some time for the Celtics to put their arms on the Titanic shift, like a franchise shift in a moment that we all saw on Monday. Brown was understandably not quite ready for it.

“I'm not sure,” he said. “I have no words at the moment. I think they just take it as it comes. Tomorrow we will know more, we'll find out more. We still have basketball to play.”