What Jayson Tatum said about his status after bruising fall

Celtics

Jayson Tatum’s forearm is scraped and bruised, but he said he will be OK.

Jayson Tatum took a scary spill as he chased after a loose ball during Sunday night’s loss to the Thunder in Oklahoma City.

The Celtics forward remained on the ground for around 40 seconds after making contact with Jalen Williams and losing his footing, colliding with one of the courtside seats at OKC’s Paycom Center.

Several teammates ran over to check on Tatum as he lay on his stomach and his feet swung in the air. Ultimately, Tatum rolled onto his back and was helped to his feet. He walked gingerly back to the sideline and stayed in the game.

“I’m cool. My arm is just bruised,” Tatum said. “I kind of went forearm first into a chair. It’s bruised, scraped up, but I’ll be alright.”

Tatum posted a 26-point, 10-rebound double-double during a team-high 39 minutes in the loss. Boston committed 16 turnovers and shot just under 20 percent from 3-point range in one of their worst offensive performances of the season.

“Turnovers hurt us for sure,” Tatum said. “We definitely feel like we had some shots, threes that we shoot every game at a high clip, good percentage that didn’t go in.”

Multiple Celtics, including Jaylen Brown, Kristaps Porzingis, and Joe Mazzulla said the Celtics had spacing issues. Tatum said it’s something the Celtics need to stay aware of when facing increased pressure like what Oklahoma City’s defense displayed.

Such matchups require a higher level of physicality from the Celtics, Tatum said.

“Teams are scouting us and trying to disrupt us,” Tatum said. “We’ve just got to match their physicality for 48 minutes and own our space at least as possible not let them dictate where we want to get to. That’s really important for us.”

The intensity that the Thunder played with on their home floor was no surprise to Tatum.

“We knew what to expect,” Tatum said. “It’s like the third game in a row that we played against Houston and Minnesota. Those three teams are scrappy, active with their hands, and things like that, so we knew what to expect.”

Houston and Oklahoma City have the two best records in the Western Conference. Minnesota, which was a playoff contender last year, is .500. The Celtics will conclude their challenging road trip with a Tuesday night game against three-time MVP Niola Jokic and the Denver Nuggets.

“We’re on a tough road trip,” Tatum said. “We want to win every game and build off of the last few games that we had. I think we lost the last two years that we’ve been here, so we just want to come back and get a win.”

Khari A. Thompson

Sports Reporter

Khari Thompson covers professional sports for Boston.com. Before joining the team in 2022, Khari covered college football for The Clarion Ledger in Jackson, Miss.