Jayson Tatum looks like himself in 2nd game back from Achilles tear

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Jayson Tatum looks like himself in 2nd game back from Achilles tear

Souichi Terada · MassLive

Sun, Mar 8, 2026 ·

2 min read

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Jayson Tatum got off to a fast start in his second game back since his Achilles tear. The C’s star looked more like himself for stretches as the Celtics beat the Cavaliers 109-98 on Sunday in Cleveland.

Tatum finished with 20 points, three rebounds and two assists in his 27 minutes, shooting 6-for-16 from the field, including 2-for-9 on 3-pointers.

“I can’t stress it enough: I’m just happy to be out here,” Tatum told ESPN in the walk-off interview. “Playing on the team. With the guys. Competing. Making plays. Making mistakes.”

The efficiency slowed after the first quarter, missing seven straight shots. But Tatum showed solid stretches of play Sunday. Tatum looked comfortably early on, grabbing contested rebounds and using his physicality to get to the rim. He scored 12 points in the first quarter alone, shooting 4-for-6 from the field.

Notably, Tatum also played well Sunday despite the quick turnaround following Friday’s game in Dallas. He only had about 1.5 days between games due to the 1 p.m. Sunday tipoff in Cleveland. That’s a positive sign considering there will be similar short turnarounds in the playoffs next month.

Tatum played 27 minutes in the victory over the Mavs , following that up with his 27 minutes Sunday. Tatum did close out the win in Cleveland, playing in crunch time after getting extended time off.

So while he’s not playing a heavy allotment of minutes yet, as expected coming off the injury, Tatum is still on the court during the most important moments. He hit an important 3-pointer with about two minutes left in the game to help seal the victory.

Now that Tatum is back, it’s business as usual for him going forward. Tatum still has 18 games left in the regular season to get a tune-up ahead of next month’s playoffs.

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