Jayson Tatum clarified the severity of knee injury that kept him out of Celtics' Game 7 loss

In the end, Jayson Tatum and the Boston Celtics made the right choice.

With Tatum suffering knee discomfort before Boston's Game 7 against the Philadelphia 76ers, the Celtics decided to protect their franchise player's future and sit him down — particularly given his miraculous return from an Achilles injury — rather than unnecessarily push him and risk everything. Yes, it has to sting that the Celtics blew a 3-1 series lead and lost a home Game 7 to one of their biggest rivals. Yes, it sucks that this was the Tatum and Jaylen Brown era Celtics' first opening-round defeat in half a decade. (And yes, it reflects very well on Philadelphia's Joel Embiid for playing through a knee injury of his own.)

But these Celtics are a big-picture franchise that has proven they still have a lot of meat on the bone in their status as NBA title contenders in the coming years. And that big picture necessitated keeping an uncomfortable Tatum out, even if it meant a season-ending defeat (in what was supposed to be a transitional year) that much more likely. Hard decisions like this are critical, even if they're not easy to stomach in the immediate moment.

In his end-of-year availability on Sunday, Tatum explained the circumstances behind his getting ruled out of Sunday's Game 7. He noted that his knee discomfort was not serious and was more of a "day-to-day" variety.

So, if the Celtics had beaten the 76ers in Game 7, we likely would've seen Tatum play at some point in the second round. And potentially right away. Ouch.