– by Adesina O. Koiki
A Lot of Sports Talk editor-in-chief
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BOSTON — It’s too early. If he’s healthy and wants to play, let him play. What will he look like? Are the Celtics the favorites in the East now?
Let the speculation and questions end, at least for now. Jayson Tatum is back, and though Friday the 13th is one week away, the blood-curdling screams from many in the NBA world you just heard are from the other Eastern Conference contenders who now have to deal with the reality of the full-strength Celtics team and, at least after tonight, a perennial All-Pro that looked just fine after 10 months away.
Looking rusty, and then spot on, in his first game from his Achilles injury in last year’s playoffs, Tatum had 15 points, 12 rebounds and seven assists in 27 minutes as the Celtics pulled away from the Dallas Mavericks 120-100 inside a supercharged TD Garden on Friday night.
“I just felt really anxious. It’s been a long time coming just to get to this point,” Tatum said. “Many nights and days I dreamed about this moment and the anticipation of the crowd. You know it’s been 42 and a half weeks since I played an NBA game. So you know, just trying to get caught up on the speed and everything. I just kind of felt like I was a step off or moving too fast. But you know the game started to slow down as I just kind of relaxed a little bit.”
The Celtics may not have a long way to go before being considered as the team to beat in the Eastern Conference in a season where Boston has won two out of every three games without their superstar in what was supposed to be a gap year while the franchise shed money and shipped much of its championship core out of town.
Tonight also served as a homecoming for No. 1 overall pick Cooper Flagg, the Maine native returning to the New England area. Flagg scored 16 points with eight rebounds and six assists, though he made just 7-for-23 from the field.
*Editor’s note: Above the byline is the photo gallery from Friday evening’s game, with photos taken by ALOST photo editor Erica Denhoff. After clicking on a photo to enlarge the picture, press the left and right arrow buttons on either side of the caption to scroll through the rest of the pictures that appear on the first page, Also, click on the numbers and/or arrow appearing immediately below the picture grid to load the next set of photos. There are 49 pictures in total.
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