Jayson Tatum will return to Boston Celtics Friday against Dallas Mavericks
Jayson Tatum will make his season debut with the Boston Celtics Friday night.
The Celtics upgraded Tatum to available on the injury report Friday afternoon, just a few hours before their game against the Dallas Mavericks at TD Garden. He was listed as questionable Thursday for the first time all season after tearing his right Achilles last May in the playoffs.
Celtics coach Joe Mazzulla said Tatum will be in the starting lineup.
The Celtics have 20 games left in the season and are currently in second place in the Eastern Conference, four-and-a-half games behind the Detroit Pistons. With Tatum out for most of this season, many expected the Celtics to struggle.
Tatum tore his right Achilles late in Game 4 of the Eastern Conference semifinals against the New York Knicks at Madison Square Garden on May 12, 2025.
Just a day later, the Celtics announced that Tatum had already had surgery. Medical experts said that because Tatum underwent surgery so quickly, it could expedite his recovery. Typical recovery from a torn Achilles is at least 9 to 12 months. Tatum has been out for nearly 10 months.
In February, Tatum practiced with Boston's G-League team as his rehabilitation appeared headed in the right direction.
"There's no pressure from us. But there's also not going to be any of us saying, 'Well, why don't you just take another week?' It's going to be: When he's ready, he's ready," Celtics president of basketball operations Brad Stevens said in February.
In eight NBA seasons since being drafted out of Duke, Tatum has become a star in the NBA. He has averaged 23.6 points and 7.3 rebounds per game in his career.
Tatum has finished in the top five in MVP voting twice, including last year when he finished fourth after averaging almost 27 points per game.
In 2024, Tatum signed a supermax contract extension valued at nearly $315 million that made him the highest paid player in the NBA by total dollars. The contract broke the previous record, which was set by Celtics teammate Jaylen Brown a year earlier.
