Celtics star Jayson Tatum played with wrist fracture vs. Warriors

The Golden State Warriors went down 2-1 in the 2022 NBA Finals, and while they gave up homecourt advantage after even Game 1, there wasn’t much worry in the Bay Area. The Dubs won the next three straight games, two of which were in Boston.

After making it through Denver, Memphis, and Dallas, the Dubs had grown used to dominant defensive teams, and they got exactly the gritty battle they should’ve expected. However, the Celtics struggled offensively often.

The Golden State Warriors beat the Boston Celtics to win their 4th championship in 8 years, and they may have had some help from a previously-unknown injury.

There may be another reason that aided their difficulty on that end of the court. Superstar forward Jayson Tatum was playing through a wrist fracture. He let the world know this in a live interview with Bleacher Report’s Taylor Rooks.

“It showed that I had a non-displaced fracture in my [left] wrist,” Tatum said.

Tatum is one of the best scorers in the NBA, and anything that impacted his play should certainly be taken into consideration when looking at his relatively awful Finals performance. Tatum averaged 26.9 points per game during the regular season, the most of his career.

That slipped to just 21.5 points per game against the Warriors in the playoffs. It was Jaylen Brown who picked up the bulk of the scoring load with a few quality performances from Derrick White and Marcus Smart.

Adding to that, Tatum shot under 37% from the field. It was not a good showing for the budding 24-year-old, but everyone should be in the same boat with thinking it won’t be his last time on that stage.

The Celtics needed Tatum to be the same player he was against Milwaukee, scoring 30 or more in 3 straight games, to stand a chance. However, they did add Pacers guard Malcolm Brogdon, so they certainly improved this offseason and will look to be back in contention next year.