Celtics' Jayson Tatum: Frustrating That I Was 'A Shell of Myself' After Ankle Injury

The Boston Celtics likely needed a dominant Jayson Tatum if they were going to win Game 7 of the Eastern Conference Finals on Monday, but he was anything but dominant for reasons out of his control.

Tatum rolled his ankle on the opening possession of what turned into a 103-84 Miami Heat victory and appeared to be in pain throughout the contest.

"It's tough because it kind of impacted me the rest of the night," he told reporters. "It swelled up. It was just frustrating that I was kind of like a shell of myself. It was tough to move."

The four-time All-Star finished with 14 points, 11 rebounds and four assists on 5-of-13 shooting from the field and 1-of-4 shooting from deep in 42 minutes.

That he couldn't be at his best was particularly unfortunate for Boston because of how effective he has been in elimination games with his team's back against the wall throughout this postseason.

He hit multiple clutch three-pointers in the closing stretch of Game 6 of the second-round series against the Philadelphia 76ers and then eliminated Boston's rivals with 51 points in Game 7. He also scored more than 30 points twice and tallied double-doubles in all three contests in Games 4-6 after the Celtics went down 3-0 to the Heat.

Yet the ankle injury prevented him from building on his past showings and put more pressure on his teammates.

They did not deliver.

Jaylen Brown finished with eight turnovers and was just 8-of-23 from the field and 1-of-9 from deep. The Celtics as a whole were an ugly 9-of-42 (21.4 percent) from three-point range, which made Miami's zone defense effective in Game 7.

With Tatum grimacing and the rest of the team struggling from deep, the game turned into a blowout by the fourth quarter as the Heat clinched their second trip to the NBA Finals in four years.