Paul Pierce played 15 seasons for the Boston Celtics and won an NBA championship with them in 2008. He gave everything to the team and carries that passion with him as he wholeheartedly supports the Celtics 12 years after playing his final season for Boston.
He showed that die-hard fandom when he was so certain the Celtics would win Game 2 of their Eastern Conference semifinal series against the New York Knicks that he said he’d walk to work if they lost. He displayed it again on Tuesday, representing Boston fans everywhere in his reaction to the news that superstar Jayson Tatum ruptured his Achilles during Game 4 and could now miss all of next season.
“It felt like the air came out of my house,” Pierce said Tuesday on “Speak.”
“It looked like the air came out of (Madison Square Garden). From the reaction on his face, it looked like a player who knew he was hurt badly.”
With 2:58 remaining in Monday night’s game, Tatum went down in a heap after diving for a loose ball that ultimately resulted in an OG Anunoby transition dunk. When the ESPN broadcast said he was down, the camera was still showing the Knicks on offense. There was no visible collision or indication of what the injury was until the camera panned back to Tatum grabbing the back of his right leg and writhing in pain as the Celtics’ training staff tended to him.
Fear heightened as the replay showed it was a non-contact injury. Then, Tatum was escorted to the locker room, unable to place weight on his right leg and was later shown burying his head in his hands while in a wheelchair.
What does Jayson Tatum’s injury mean for the Celtics? | First Things First
“When I saw him walk out without putting any pressure on it, and then we saw the wheelchair, I knew it was bad,” Pierce said. “I just feel bad for Jayson and the Boston Celtics.”
Tatum, too, was having his best game of the 2025 playoffs, an individual effort that would have lived in Celtics lore regardless of the outcome. In front of a rowdy Madison Square Garden crowd, he scored 42 points on 16-of-28 shooting and knocked down seven 3-point shots. Now that performance can’t be mentioned without bringing up the injury.
“He was putting together a game that we were going to be talking about for a long time,” Pierce said. “He was on his way to 50 points, carrying the Celtics.”
He was Boston’s only consistent form of offense in a game in which it blew another double-digit second-half lead. New York had gone on an 11-2 run to put the game on ice just before Tatum’s injury. Even though the Knicks didn’t get the 121-113 win because Tatum went down, his absence certainly makes the remainder of this series much easier for them to close out.
“For the Boston Celtics, who are still playing in the playoffs — continue to fight,” Pierce said. “It is not over.”
The best-of-seven series sits at 3-1 with Game 5 set for Wednesday night in Boston, but the Celtics’ auxiliary pieces have struggled during this series, and they would need huge turnarounds from each to mount a comeback and beat the Knicks. Jaylen Brown, the 2024 Finals MVP, is averaging 20.5 points on just 37.7% shooting from the field, and is 7-of-31 on 3-point shots. Kristaps Porzingis has averaged just 5.0 ppg in 17.5 minutes as he’s battling an illness.
[Related: Could Jayson Tatum’s injury end this iteration of the Celtics?]
“I just feel bad for Jayson and the Boston Celtics because you hate to lose your star and especially hate to lose him to an injury like the one we heard came out today,” Pierce said. “So my heart goes out to his family, the organization. You hate to see it for a young star.”
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