Boston Celtics forward Jayson Tatum missed Saturday's season-ending Game 7 defeat against the Philadelphia 76ers due to left knee stiffness.
Tatum, who was added to the injury report hours before tipoff, put to bed any fears that he had suffered a serious ailment.
"It was definitely a day-to-day thing," Tatum told reporters Sunday, per CLNS Media. "It sounds pretty vague, but it was just something we would've assessed from day-to-day. It wasn't a long-term thing. I know for a fact I would have been able to play if we had made it to the second round."
Tatum returned to the lineup on March 6 versus the Dallas Mavericks, just 10 months after rupturing his right Achilles tendon. The six-time All-Star showed flashes of his old self, averaging 21.8 points, 10 rebounds, 5.3 assists, and 1.4 steals in 32.6 minutes across 16 regular-season appearances.
Tatum's workload increased to 36.3 minutes per contest through the first six contests of the postseason. He left Game 6 with 4:03 to go in the third quarter with an apparent left leg issue and didn't return.
Both Tatum and head coach Joe Mazzulla downplayed the possibility of an injury postgame. But the team's medical staff shut down Tatum after he experienced discomfort behind his knee in the hours leading up to Game 7.
"It was just unfortunate timing, but I guess a little bit to be expected, right? I was away for 10-and-a-half months and then I came back and I'm playing every other day," Tatum said. "I was playing 36-40 minutes, so it's not unusual that something would come up.
"It was just kind of tough because rehab was just going so welI the entire time. I guess it was inevitable at some point that I was gonna have to deal with something, and it just kind of came at the worst possible time."
