The reigning champion Boston Celtics have been in fine form while defending their champion thus far this season. The club has gotten off to a fast 20-5 start, which would puts the Celtics on track for a 66-16 record. Last year, en route to a record 18th NBA title, Boston went 64-18.

But Boston’s best player, five-time All-Star and four-time All-NBA Team power forward Jayson Tatum, is grappling with an ominous injury.

Just prior to the start of Boston’s eventual 123-99 blowout decimation of the Detroit Pistons, the 6-foot-8 former Duke Blue Devil was a late scratch with what was called a right patella tendinopathy.

Ahead of that clash, third-year Celtics head coach Joe Mazzulla appeared to downplay the severity of the soft tissue injury, as Noa Dalzell of CLNS and SB Nation detailed.

Joe Mazzulla with an update on Jayson Tatum’s knee:

“Tendinopathy comes and goes. It’s nothing serious.” pic.twitter.com/bXXFoftx5j

— Noa Dalzell 🏀 (@NoaDalzell) December 12, 2024

“He worked out today, pretty good,” Mazzulla said. “He’ll get another small workout tomorrow, [Friday] just continue to work on it. He’s getting better.”

“Tendinopathy, I don’t know too much about it but I do think it’s just kind of something that comes and goes,” Mazzulla continued. “It’s nothing serious.”

With Tatum now having sat out two of Boston’s last four bouts, he has seen his MVP odds take a massive dive in online sportsbooks, often getting as far as +1400 odds. Next up for the Celtics is a matchup with the worst team in the NBA by record, the 3-20 Washington Wizards, on Sunday night. Should Tatum want to sit out another game, the Wizards clash would represent an optimal opportunity to do so.

Injuries haven’t been much of an issue for the 26-year-old thus far during his NBA reign. Tatum has suited up for at least 74 regular season contests in five of his seven prior seasons. The only two exceptions were the league’s two COVID-19-shortened seasons, 2019-20 and 2020-21, in which he played 66 of 72 possible games and 64 of 72 possible games, respectively.

In his 23 healthy games for Boston this year, Tatum has been averaging a tasty line of 28.2 points on .453/.364/.800 shooting splits (that 36.4 percent 3-point rate arrives on a career-most 10.5 triple tries a night), plus career highs of 8.9 rebounds and 5.7 assists. He’s also averaging 1.2 assists and 0.5 blocks per bout, to boot.