The Boston Celtics' next game could be their first of the season with Jayson Tatum on the court.

Nearly 10 months after rupturing his right Achilles tendon, Tatum is listed as questionable on the NBA's official injury report for Friday's home game against the Dallas Mavericks.

This is the first time in the 2025-26 season he wasn't listed as sidelined and undergoing rehabilitation for the injury he sustained late in Game 4 of Boston's Eastern Conference semi-final loss to the New York Knicks on May 12, 2025.

Tatum, who returned to practise with the Celtics' G League affiliate in early February, is described as being ready to go, according to Shams Charania of ESPN.

 

There's an expectation that Jayson Tatum will make his 2025-26 season debut for the Boston Celtics on Friday night at TD Garden versus Dallas, sources tell ESPN. Tatum has been described as ready to go and will inform the Celtics of a final decision over the next day. https://t.co/id20oBkXi0

— Shams Charania (@ShamsCharania) March 5, 2026

Tatum had previously implied that he wanted to make his season debut at home, and after the game against the Mavericks, the Celtics embark on a three-game road trip before returning home to face the Washington Wizards on March 14.

Boston (41-21) has 20 games remaining in the regular season, and while it seems unlikely to grab the conference's top seed, it is in a tight race for securing home-court advantage for a second-round series. The Atlantic Division-leading Celtics are in second place in the East, five games behind the conference-leading Detroit Pistons, but just 1 1/2 games ahead of the third-place Knicks and 2 1/2 games in front of the fourth-place Cleveland Cavaliers.

Tatum, who turned 28 on Tuesday, is a six-time All-Star and was an All-NBA first-team selection each of the past four seasons. He also led the Celtics in scoring each of the last six seasons.

In 72 games in 2024-25, he averaged 26.8 points along with 8.7 rebounds and a career-high 6.0 assists. He shot 34.3 per cent from beyond the arc and ranked fifth in the NBA with an average of 3.5 made 3-pointers per game.