‘I lost a lot of fluids’: Jayson Tatum explains sickness that made him miss Magic game

Jayson Tatum was scratched from the Celtics’ lineup minutes before Boston tipped off in it’s loss against the Magic on Monday night.

Tatum, who was ruled out with a non-COVID illness, told reporters that he tried to play through the sickness but was too fatigued to make it happen.

“It was just a little virus, a 24-48 hour bug,” he said. “I felt fine the entire day during warmups and it just hit me during our meeting right before the game. Let’s just say I lost a lot of fluids over the last two days.

“Maybe a little fatigued from being sick the last few days,” he added. “But just trying to push through it and catch my second wind, things like that.”

Celtics coach Joe Mazzulla said Tatum’s absence was not an excuse for losing to the shorthanded Magic. The Celtics (22-8) are 2-1 without Tatum this year. Both wins came against Detroit while Tatum sat out with knee pain.

“We had enough. Obviously you want to have one of your best players,” Mazzulla said at the time. “You want to have him, but it’s not really a challenge. We did what we had to do. We got off to a good start. We just had a tough third quarter.”

Tatum returned to action on Christmas, posting a 32-point, 15-rebound double-double in the Celtics’ loss to the Sixers. He had an efficient shooting night, making 11 of his 20 field-goals including four of eight from 3-point range.

But, a sluggish defensive effort caused the Celtics to lose back-to-back games for the first time this season.

“We’ve got to do a better job of taking ownership of locking in on that side of the ball,” Tatum said. “I think we’ve let that slip a little bit these last few games and that’s on all of us individually. We’ve got to be better, and that translates to us being better as a unit on defense. It’s just as simple as we’ve got to be better.”

Tatum said the Celtics need to get back to playing with the level pride on defense that made them champions a year ago.

Other teams, including the upstart Magic and struggling Sixers, are hitting them with all they have. It’s on the Celtics to rediscover the proper way to respond.

“We’ve been to three-straight conference Finals, two Finals appearances in the last three years,” Tatum said. “We’ve been getting everybody’s best shot over the last few years so it’s not something that should catch us off guard or anything like that. It should be something that’s expected.”