Jayson Tatum’s injury update: How serious is it and how long will he be out?

The tears rolled down the cheeks of Jayson Tatum as the fear rolled in like a dark cloud over the waves, spreading across Madison Square Garden and pouring down on those in green and white; without their star and now 3-1 down, where do the Celtics go from here?

Update: Jayson Tatum undergoes surgery on torn Achilles tendon

A 121-113 loss to the Knicks in Game 4 of the Eastern Conference semifinals puts them on the cliff edge, just a single game away from elimination. For the

They tried to harvest ‘the darkness’ said coach Joe Mazzulla, commenting that “you’ve got to tap into your darkness" ahead of Game 4. But there’s no Doctor Doom in this side, no super-powered, evil-hearted asshole who can grab the game by the scruff of the neck and blow everything away in its path. As a group they can, so show their 60+ wins in the NBA regular season, but at this point, everything has fallen away. The wannabe bad guys have been trumped by the wannabe superheroes, as the stories often go in both The Incredibles and NBA basketball.

And now their main candidate to embrace the darkness and take the team on in the postseason, Jayson Tatum, is out. “I mean, at this point, I’m concerned about Jayson,” Celtics center Al Horford admitted in the aftermath of the clash. “That’s the most important to me. ... The game stuff, we’ll address it. But I’m just hoping that he’s OK.”

What injury does Jayson Tatum have?

The Celtics had just turned the ball over when Tatum lunged to recover it. But his right leg gave out, sending him crashing to the floor with 2:58 remaining.

As Knicks forward OG Anunoby scooped up the loose ball and sprinted down the court for a dunk, Tatum remained down, not even trying to stand on his clearly injury leg that had suffered during the landing.

Grimacing in pain, he immediately called for a timeout and covered his face with a towel, clutching the area just above his ankle.

Unable to bend, straighten or put weight on his leg, Tatum was carried off the pitch, impotent against his clearly visible emotions. Before his fall, he had managed 42 points and was 16-for-28 shooting.

‘I’ve got no words right now’

“I’m not sure,” Boston guard Jaylen Brown said when asked what Tatum’s injury could mean for the franchise moving forward. “I’ve got no words right now.”

Celtics coach Joe Mazzulla revealed that, as expected, Tatum would undergo an MRI on Tuesday, but the Celtics have not, at the time of writing, released an official statement on Tatum’s injury, and Mazzulla had no other update.

As for Kristaps Porzingis, all of the result, state of the team, and his teammate were on equal footing, angrily admitting after the game that “these things happen”. “Obviously, we all felt for him in that moment, but we just have to keep going, we have to keep playing. Obviously, we all realized in our heads what this could mean, but again, this is part of the sport, it’s tough, and it’s hard to see and hard to accept the truth. But it is what it is, and we have to go forward with what we have now.”

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The Celtics will be hoping for help from their fans at TD Garden as they fight to keep their season alive in Game 5 on Wednesday night in Boston.

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