NBC Sports’ Mike Gorman speculates that Jayson Tatum is out for the rest of the series

On his visit with Toucher & Rich on 98.5’s The SportsHub, Mike Gorman, the play-by-play voice of the Boston Celtics, suggested that Jayson Tatum might not be available for the remainder of the series.

Three minutes into the third quarter, Tatum ripped the ball away from Kevin Durant after a rebound. Durant took a swipe at Tatum and poked him in the eye. Tatum then crumpled to the floor as Brad Stevens called timeout. Soon after, he was ruled out for the remainder of the game.

In his postgame presser, Stevens said, “he got scratched pretty good. It looks pretty red. It looks pretty swollen to me. I don’t know what that means. I don’t know the exact diagnosis is, but obviously he’s uncomfortable right now.”

During the NBC Sports broadcast, analyst Brian Scalabrine suggested that Tatum should go back on the floor after he emerged from the locker room despite the score of the game. Gorman disagreed and clarified his thoughts with Toucher & Rich.

“We’ve all been poked in the eye in one point or another in athletics who have played. You know that, depending on how hard that poke is, for a good 24 or 48 hours, you’re not seeing straight out of your eye,” Gorman said. “How are they going to play a guy who can’t see straight if he’s going to be shooting all the time because he’s the #1 offensive guy? I’ll be surprised if we see Tatum again in this series.”

Gorman saw pictures of Tatum’s eye and based on what Stevens said, his speculation is that he won’t play in Game 3 or the rest of the series. Tatum has three days to heal up before Friday’s contest and five until Game 4 when TD Garden will be at full capacity.

UPDATE: Per Brad Stevens on Zolak & Bertrand, “(Tatum) is doing better and Friday looked like a probable” after the team arrived back in Boston last night.