The Celtics got what they wanted in Game 1 with a convincing 114-94 win over the Heat in their first-round opener but it didn’t come without a little bit of drama. Jayson Tatum took a hard fall with under a minute remaining in the fourth quarter after Heat forward Caleb Martin charged into him while going for an offensive rebound.
Tatum tried to downplay the collision after the game which led to two free throws for him on the other end of the floor.
“Just understanding it’s playoff basketball, right,” Tatum said. “It’s a physical game, playing against a physical team, shit’s going to happen. It’s not the last time my body will get hit like that or fouled in this series. So, I wasn’t hurt. You get hit like that, you just get up, and I knew we was in the bonus. So I knocked the free throw down.”
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Former player and Celtics analyst Brian Scalabrine had a sharper reaction to the exchange that occurred when the contest was already decided. In fact, he called on the league to get involved to hand out some punishment to Martin even though there was no video review during the game.
“To me, it’s a dirty play,” Scalabrine said. “I think anybody that looks at that, I think Martin should get suspended for that. That’s a dirty play. You can’t do that. Just think about that. The NBA is about the star players. The idea of winning an NBA championship is your star players have to stay healthy. And a guy goes up, and you just ram into him? That ain’t basketball.”
Martin tried to defend himself after the game, noting that it was just his momentum that caused the collision and there was no ill content on his end. Jaylen Brown confronted Martin after the play as tensions flared between the two teams while Tatum walked to the other end of the floor.
“Hard foul, trying to take it for his teammate,” Martin said. “I tried to go help him up. Obviously, I just heard him hit the floor. I didn’t know I hit him pretty hard. Momentum was carrying me, and I think I got pushed into that direction. Hard foul, I tried to pick him up, that’s just what it is. If Jimmy (Butler) was on the floor, I would’ve done the same thing.”
Brown did not speak with the media after the game but his teammates hinted that they were a little bit skeptical of the collision.
“I don’t know if it was an accident or not,” Kristaps Porzingis said. “Those kind of plays happen. Little bit of action, I think it’s good during the playoffs. So that was fun.”
The Celtics and Heat will return to action at TD Garden on Wednesday night for Game 2.
