Celtics unveil Jayson Tatum injury plan after NBA Player of the Week win originally appeared on The Sporting News. Add The Sporting News as a Preferred Source by clicking here.
Eagle-eyed fans of the Boston Celtics have noticed that Jayson Tatum has been playing a lot like his former self. The idea that he had just suffered an Achilles injury less than 10 months before was starting to get buried too. He also ended up winning NBA Player of the Week which was a big eye-opener to most basketball faithful. Despite all of this success, Coach Joe Mazzulla posits that they still need to be cautious in letting Tatum play alongside Jaylen Brown and Derrick White.
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Mazzulla, Celtics unveil Tatum injury plan as NBA Playoffs near
The idea that Mazzulla is sticking to will be rather quite simple: Do not let Tatum accumulate too much fatigue. It is precisely playing too much and having way more explosive moments that his body can handle that leads to aggravating that Achilles injury. The Celtics trust that they should follow the same philosophy and their head coach used it as a way to explain why he would be sitting out against the Atlanta Hawks, via Jay King of The Athletic.
“That’s where I just trust the people that we have. I trust the sports science team. I trust Nick Sang, the guy that’s been with him for a lot of his career, but also during this journey and getting back. So, I kind of stayed out of it and really just listened to the people that know a lot more about that and kind of trust them. And that’s what’s best for our team, that’s what’s best for him right now. And then we go forward. So, just kind of to listen to them on that,” Mazzulla declared.
Tatum has played in 11 of the 13 available Celtics games since his return on March 6. He quickly ramped up and integrated himself well into Coach Mazzulla’s system. His rebounding rate is at an all-time high and is valued at 28.9.
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In the past week, he looked like his former All-NBA self too. He notched insane averages of 25.7 points, 9.7 rebounds, and 6.7 assists on Week 23 in the association. This marks the third time that a Celtics player was named the NBA Player of the Week. The previous two honors were given to Jaylen Brown when he won them on Week 7 and Week 10.
Winning time is near and the Celtics are all too familiar with it. Will this strategy to preserve Tatum while also allowing him to still develop be the reason why Coach Mazzulla and Co. hoist their 19th banner up in the rafters?