Game 4 of the 2025 Eastern Conference semifinals was the best game Tatum had played that spring. He had 42 points on 57.1% shooting in 40 minutes, with eight rebounds and four assists.

With 2:58 left and Boston down nine, Jaylen Brown lost the ball and Tatum went after it. His right leg gave out with no one near him. He called his own timeout, grabbed at his lower leg and left the floor in a wheelchair.

He had surgery in New York the next day, May 13, to repair a ruptured right Achilles tendon. The Celtics gave no timetable. Boston won Game 5 at home 127-102, then lost Game 6 in New York 119-81, and the defending champions were out.

1. May 12, 2025Right Achilles ruptures late in Game 4 at Madison Square Garden.
2. May 13, 2025Surgery in New York. Tatum visits his teammates at the team hotel afterwards.
3. May 16, 2025Knicks eliminate Boston 119-81 in Game 6.
4. Mar. 5, 2026Listed as questionable for the first time all season.
5. Mar. 6, 2026Starts against Dallas at TD Garden, 298 days after the injury.

His first shot back, a step-back three, missed everything. He missed his first six shots, then made his next five, and finished with 15 points, 12 rebounds and seven assists in 27 minutes of a 120-100 win. He came out for good with 5:01 left and Boston up 25.

Tatum played 16 of Boston’s last regular-season games. The Celtics went 13-3 in them, and he scored 20 or more in 12. His shooting was not all the way back yet: 41.1% from the field and 32.9% from three.

Points in each of his 16 regular-season games, March 6 to April 9

The 56-26 Celtics drew Philadelphia in the first round. Tatum had 25 in a 123-91 Game 1 win, and 30 points with 11 assists in a 128-96 Game 4 win that put Boston up 3-1.

Then it turned. The 76ers won Game 5 in Boston 113-97. In Game 6, Tatum left in the third quarter with what the team first called left leg stiffness, finishing with 17 in a 106-93 loss.

Tatum's points in the 2026 first round

On the day of Game 7 he was listed as questionable with left knee stiffness, then ruled out about 90 minutes before tip-off. He was still inside his return-to-play window, and the plan required a step-by-step progression back to full contact. Philadelphia won 109-100. It was the first time the Celtics had lost a series after leading 3-1.

In the summer, Boston traded Jaylen Brown to Philadelphia for Paul George, the forward on the other side of that series. The deal became official on July 6.

The season opened in Detroit, and Tatum went 6-of-23 with 13 points in a 121-113 loss. He has averaged 33 points since, and the Celtics have won three in a row.

Points per game, 2026-27

Tuesday was the second night of a back-to-back, a day after a 134-99 win over Chicago. Brooklyn led 124-123 when Paul George grabbed a defensive rebound with 2.3 seconds left in overtime and Boston called timeout.

Derrick White inbounded to Tatum, who got to his spot and hit a 17-foot turnaround jumper as time ran out. The review confirmed it was out of his hand in time. Celtics 125, Nets 124.

Most buzzer-beaters in Celtics history

The NBA counted it as the seventh game-winning shot of his career in the final three seconds, the most of any player since the start of 2019-20. Bird, who did it twice, is the only other Celtic to score 40 and hit a buzzer-beater in the same game.

He said there are now moments in games, a cut or a burst, when something in his mind clicks and it feels like it did before the injury. Asked whether those movements feel different than they did last spring, he said: “Totally, totally different.”