No NBA player has logged more total minutes (regular season and playoffs) than Jayson Tatum since the beginning of the 2021-22 season.
That's a testament to Tatum's durability, but it doesn't mean the Boston Celtics' young Ironman is immune to injury.
Tatum missed his third game of the season Saturday night due to left wrist soreness, and while he's back in the lineup Monday for Boston's game against the Magic in Orlando, the Celtics star admitted he was in some pain after logging 48 minutes in the team's overtime win over the Golden State Warriors on Thursday night.
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"Almost 50 minutes the other night didn’t necessarily help," Tatum told reporters Monday at the team's shootaround in Orlando, via MassLive.com's Souichi Terada. "Had a couple of falls on my wrist. I think the extra day off helped me out with that."
Tatum's wrist injury is nothing new; he revealed last August that he played most of the postseason with a non-displaced fracture in his left wrist. The 24-year-old has worn athletic tape on his wrist, thumb and ring finger during games this season and said he's not ruling out the possibility of having surgery on his left wrist this offseason.
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"Maybe. I don't want to say yes and I don’t want to say no," Tatum said when asked if he'll need wrist surgery this summer, via Bobby Manning of the Boston Sports Journal. "It’s something we’ve got to look at when the season’s over."
The thought of Boston's best player needing surgery is obviously concerning, but Tatum insisted he has no current limitations with the wrist and doesn't expect to miss significant time due to the injury.
Tatum added that his wrist "does better with rest," however, and the Celtics should heed that feedback. The sixth-year forward is one of only three players averaging at least 37 minutes per game (along with Luka Doncic and Pascal Siakam), and considering his team boasts the NBA's best record, head coach Joe Mazzulla should find opportunities to give his superstar a game off now and then to make sure he's fresh for the postseason.
And if surgery is an option for Tatum this offseason, that might be a wise move for the C's star to reduce the possibility of his wrist injury being a long-term issue.