DETROIT \u2014 Hours before a showdown of the Eastern Conference\u2019s two top teams, Jayson Tatum provided Boston Celtics fans with an additional dose of excitement when he went through an hour-long workout in front of the media.<\/p>\n
Most of Tatum\u2019s injury rehabilitation has taken place away from the public eye, but his workout Monday morning offered a peek behind the curtains. At Seaholm High School, where the Celtics held shootaround before their game against the Detroit Pistons, several assistant coaches, including Tony Dobbins, put Tatum through a series of on-court drills. He flashed his typical outside touch and showcased the physical progress he has made over the eight months since rupturing his Achilles last spring.<\/p>\n
Tatum did shooting drills simulating coming off screens. He worked on his pull-up jump shots. He drove through contact from Dobbins, who was playing the role of defender. Tatum rose for a few dunks during the workout as well.<\/p>\n
He was not available for comment afterward, but teammate Derrick White said it has been \u201camazing to see\u201d Tatum\u2019s progress.<\/p>\n
\u201cObviously, all the work he\u2019s put in, and you just kind of see him being around more and being able to do more,\u201d White said. \u201cSo, that\u2019s exciting to see as a friend. Every day he\u2019s been working hard, and it\u2019s good to see all that hard work add to some more movement and more opportunity.\u201d<\/p>\n
Though Tatum has made it known he would like to play this season, the Celtics have put no timeline on his return. Following the workout Monday, coach Joe Mazzulla offered little further detail on the star\u2019s rehabilitation, though Mazzulla did acknowledge it was \u201cinteresting\u201d that Tatum worked out in front of the media the way he did. He had previously not done much in front of the media.<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t know where he\u2019s at,\u201d Mazzulla said Monday evening. \u201cI just trust the strength staff. I trust the sports science staff. I don\u2019t know where he\u2019s at, but I trust those guys, and I know they\u2019re working really hard to put him in position to be successful and just get better every day.\u201d<\/p>\n
If Tatum does return this season, his presence would fortify a team that has played like a contender in his absence. Even with him sidelined all season, the Celtics entered the midway point of the regular season in second place in the Eastern Conference at 26-15. They also rank second in net rating across the NBA thanks partly to a big season from Jaylen Brown, who was named an All-Star starter<\/a> on Monday. Mazzulla said he was very happy to see Brown earn the honor.<\/p>\n The Celtics will be thrilled whenever Brown gets his running mate back. White said he does not know exactly where Tatum stands in his injury rehab but suggested his teammate has been itching to come back.<\/p>\n \u201cYou know he doesn\u2019t want to watch,\u201d White said. \u201cHe wants to get out there and play. But he\u2019s been amazing just supporting. Every game, just having him over there has been a lot of fun. And I have no idea exactly what the timeline is or how he\u2019s doing, but it\u2019s just good to see him moving around and just supporting us.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"DETROIT \u2014 Hours before a showdown of the Eastern Conference\u2019s two top teams, Jayson Tatum provided Boston Celtics…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":425300,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[557],"tags":[64,63,1664,590,85],"class_list":{"0":"post-425299","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nba","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-boston-celtics","11":"tag-nba","12":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/425299","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=425299"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/425299\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/425300"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=425299"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=425299"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=425299"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}