Jayson Tatum still doesn't have a return date after Celtics scrimmage

The Celtics had some fun Saturday when their social media team posted several images suggesting that Jayson Tatum had seemingly gone through a practice session with the roster.

Tatum, who was present prior to the Celtics' practice Saturday, addressed the media to clarify that those pictures posted were from an optional workout he participated in Wednesday prior to the team's 121-110 win over the Golden Sate Warriors at the University of San Francisco and that he hadn't taken part in practice with the team.

While many of the pictures posted were solo shots of Tatum, one of the images is of big man Luke Garza guarding the Celtics star, which has once again led to further speculation that a return is coming soon -- a notion that Tatum denied, stating there is no confirmed date yet.

"I do not have a date," Tatum told reporters of his return. "I just take it one day at a time. I feel better than I did yesterday, and that's the most important thing."

Joe Mazzulla would not say if Tatum would practice with the team, who were at Santa Barbara Prep on Saturday, but did mention how he continues his on-court work and overall recovery process.

"He's just continuing to get better," Mazzulla said during his pre-practice comments. "Working on his reads and then continuing to hit his checkmarks in the weight room and then in the treatment room as well. The main goal is just making sure he gets 100% healthy and continues to get better and better."

"It's just trusting the group that we have around him," he continued. "And taking it step-by-step. So, just making sure we stick to that as much as we can. He came out of the Maine practice pretty well, and so we'll continue to see it from there. It just depends as he continues to hit those check marks, whatever they may be."

According to Mazzulla, the Celtics -- or Tatum for that matter -- haven't practiced since the now famous Maine Celtics practice session nearly two weeks ago, which the star forward told reporters not to read into it as nothing more than "the next step" to rehab his Achilles. But since then there have been reports that a return is near, especially after NBC/Peacock flexed a Celtics-Sixers matchup for March 1 and promoted a five-part docuseries titled "The Quiet Work," which both occurred during NBA All-Star Weekend.

"It's been tough. It's been a roller coaster," Tatum told ESPN during All-Star Weekend. "There's been different phases of doubt, sadness, times where I didn't think I was going to come back and play. I can honestly say right now that I'm proud of myself that I've made it this far, that I've stuck with it every single day."

The Celtics, who have ruled out Tatum for Sunday's matchup against the rival Los Angeles Lakers, don't have a plan for him to join their actual practices other than five-on-scrimmages and or workouts -- a somewhat clear indication that he's not returning any time soon.

"Work out, see how you recover the next day and then you just make a plan from there,” Tatum said Saturday. "It was a little five-on-five (Wednesday). It's tough to go into detail on every single thing I'm doing every day, but I will say I'm just getting acclimated more and doing little things with some of the guys out there, but it's all part of rehab and just going with the plan."

While this may seem like a the final stages of the recovery process for Tatum, he's not focused on setting a return date but rather making sure he's at 100% before considering making any decisions, as he also did not give out what percentage he's currently at either.

"I feel like I'm beating a dead horse," Tatum said. "I'm taking it one day at a time. This is something that's very serious. The injury that I had is just a long journey. For me, it's just easier to take it one day at a time and see how I progress from there."

Episode one of Tatum's docuseries premieres tonight, as the Celtics (36-19) face the Lakers (34-21) and NBC/Peacock will have the tip-off at 6:30 pm ET.

Joel Pavón

Follow @Joe1_CSP



Photo used courtesy of CLNS on YouTube