The Celtics will have Jayson Tatum (wrist) back in the lineup on Friday for Game 3 of their first round series against the Magic. The All-Star forward sat out Wednesday’s Game 2 win due to a severe bone bruise in his right wrist suffered in the fourth quarter of Game 1.
Tatum was originally listed as doubtful for Game 3 but was upgraded to questionable after the team’s shootaround on Friday morning at the Kia Center. He took part in a full warmup about an hour before Game 3 before getting the green light from the team.
“He’s feeling a little better so we’ll see how it goes,” Joe Mazzulla said during his pregame press conference.
Tatum had played 114 consecutive playoff games before missing Game 2 on Wednesday night. He wore a wrap on the right wrist during Game 2 while watching from the sidelines.
“He’s dealing with a severe bone bruise,” Mazzulla said in a radio interview with 98.5 on Thursday. “He’s day-to-day and he’s progressively gotten better each day. Yesterday, he went through all the protocols and did everything you should possibly do up to the last moment to try to play. He just wasn’t able to do it but he’ll go back at it again today and he’s in that day-to-day process right now.”
Tatum has been one of the most durable players on the Celtics roster during his career dating back to 2017, having never missed more than 10 games in a season.
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