Why is Jayson Tatum not playing tonight against Magic? Celtics superstar’s absence explored for Game 2

Boston Celtics star Jayson Tatum has been officially ruled out for Game 2 of their Eastern Conference first-round series against the Orlando Magic on Wednesday at TD Garden in Boston.

Leading up to the game, Tatum was the lone Celtic listed on the injury report. He was listed as doubtful with a right distal radius bone bruise (wrist). Celtics coach Joe Mazzulla described the setback as day-to-day.

The Celtics star fell hard after going up for a dunk in the final quarter of Game 1 on Sunday, landing awkwardly on his right wrist. Magic guard-forward Kentavious Caldwell-Pope was assessed a flagrant foul on the play. Tatum stayed in the game but was clearly in pain.

"It’s all right. I just fell on it, landed on it," Tatum said following the Game 1 win. "It was throbbing for a second then kind of went away."

Wednesday's game will be the first playoff game that Tatum will miss in his eight-year NBA career. He has appeared in 114 postseason games and has career averages of 23.9 points, 8.0 rebounds and 4.9 assists. In 39.0 minutes per game, he shot 43.9% (34.3% on 3-pointers).

In the 2024-25 season, Boston went 8–2 in the 10 games Tatum missed. However, both losses came against the Magic: a 96–76 road defeat on April 10, when Boston’s top rotation players sat out, and a 108–104 loss on Dec. 24.

Joe Mazzulla's reaction to Jayson Tatum's Game 1 injury: "Get up"

Boston Celtics coach Joe Mazzulla's competitive nature was on full display in Game 1 after Jayson Tatum went down with the wrist injury.

A clip that circulated on X showed Mazzulla preventing a trainer from attending to the six-time NBA All-Star and bluntly yelling:

“Get up,” Mazzulla said.

Jayson Tatum hopes to lead the Celtics to back-to-back titles, something no team has done since the Golden State Warriors won consecutive championships in 2017 and 2018.

Game 3 of the best-of-seven series against the Magic is scheduled for Friday at Kia Center in Orlando.