In the grand scheme of things, the Boston Celtics can probably beat the Orlando Magic in a seven game series without Jayson Tatum. They already beat them in Game 2 missing their star. The Boston Celtics are deep. Missing him for a few games in the first round, in all likelihood, is fine. I’m not a Boston fan. I don’t mind jinxing it.
One hopes that the injury won’t linger too long. The fact he was able to keep going in game one after sustaining the injury in the first place is hopefully a good sign? Maybe they’re going to play it safe.
Looking forward, it should be fine.
That’s all well and good then. Why am I here?
Well, looking back, there was a bit of a cock up with a streak of some sort. The Bluesky account NBA Stat posted the following:
“Jayson Tatum missed his 1st playoff game ever, ending a streak of 114 games, the 2nd longest active streak to begin a playoff career, which now belongs to Nikola Jokić (82 games). LeBron holds the all-time record. Never missed a single playoff game. Tonight will be his 290th consecutive game.”
I don’t want to make this about LeBron so I’ll just get it out of the way real quick: Damn, LeBron! Way to go!
Thanks for indulging me. I would love to find the list and tell you who else is on there and where, but after some searching I’ve decided that that is impossible for my tiny mind to do. Sorry about that.
It is a shame to see the streak going down. It probably wasn’t something people were actively tracking as some sort of marker of legacy, but it’s a shame when big numbers stop going up.
But more than that, it’s a testament to Jayson Tatum, his training, and the Boston Celtics as a whole for being so consistently good for so long. And also having such a competent medical staff, for that matter. That these many playoff appearances are even possible this early in quite a young career is incredible.
It’s hard to believe Tatum is all that bothered. If he is, I hope he feels better soon. And that he recovers physically as well. I just want everyone to be healthy and happy all the time.