How Paul Pierce Felt Watching Jayson Tatum’s Game 4 Injury Vs. Knicks

Boston Celtics legend Paul Pierce had a tough time watching Jayson Tatum suffer a ruptured Achilles tendon against the New York Knicks in real-time.

Tatum was in the process of a dominant Game 4 performance at Madison Square Garden, scoring 42 points before the 27-year-old’s biggest nightmare came to life. Tatum hit the deck with a non-contact injury in the fourth quarter and was assisted off the court before being wheeled off in the players’ tunnel. Everyone on Boston’s sideline, both for the remainder of the game and afterward in the locker room, went dead silent.

Pierce, watching from home, was also speechless.

“Man, my initial reaction was it felt like the air came out of my house. It looked like the air came out of the building,” Pierce said on FS1’s “Speak” on Tuesday. “It really looked like, from the reaction on his face — you could see when a player is hurt and it’s bad. And that’s the look I saw on his face, and then I was just like, ‘Man, this ain’t good.’ Because he was putting together a game that we was going to be talking about for a long time. He was on his way to 50 points carrying the Celtics.”

Tatum was a one-man army, guiding the team along their pursuit of a 2-2 series tie. He found his 3-point touch and went mano a mano with Knicks star Jalen Brunson in a pressure-filled environment. The problem was that Tatum was all alone. Co-star Jaylen Brown sat on the bench with five fouls, Kristaps Porzingis was reduced to a 7-foot liability due to his illness, and the team’s copy-and-paste game plan of ride or die by the three didn’t do anyone any favors on Boston’s end.

The Celtics got out-rebounded (43-31), outscored in the paint (64-32) and completely outcoached as New York’s Tom Thibodeau continues to pull the rug from underneath Boston’s Joe Mazzulla. Yet, through it all, Tatum left it all on the line for the reigning champs and paid the ultimate price.

While everyone awaited an update on Tatum, Pierce had an idea of what Tuesday evening’s news would reveal about the six-time All-Star’s injury severity.

“When I saw him walk out without putting any pressure on it, he was getting carried and then he got the wheelchair. I knew it was bad,” Pierce said. “And I just feel bad for Jayson and the Boston Celtics because you hate to lose your star, and you hate to lose them to an injury like the one we heard of that came out today. So my heart goes out to his family, the organization. You just hate to see it from the young stars. Hopefully, this is something he can bounce back from.”

The Celtics announced that Tatum underwent successful surgery in New York and is expected to make a full recovery. However, what that recovery will look like in terms of a timetable remains unknown. Tatum hasn’t suffered an injury of this severity through his eight seasons in the NBA and what it’ll mean for the future of the team, too, is up for questioning as the offseason approaches.

Tatum averaged 26.8 points with 8.7 rebounds and six assists this past season across 72 appearances. It’s a campaign that went with a bittersweet finish as Tatum tied Celtics legends Larry Bird and John Havlicek for the most 40-point playoff games (5) recorded in franchise history.