Jayson Tatum got a scare midway through the third quarter of the Celtics’ win over the Bucks on Sunday that rubbed Boston coach Joe Mazzulla the wrong way.
The Celtics star, who scored 31 points in Boston’s 113-107 victory, attempted a 3-point shot with 7:09 remaining in the third quarter. Tatum came down on the foot of Giannis Antetokounmpo’s foot during the landing from his 3-point attempt and immediately fell to the ground in pain. Boston trainers escorted Tatum off the floor after the Celtics called timeout nine seconds later but the All-Star remained in the game after the stoppage.
Tatum was spotted pleading his case to officials after re-entering the game for the missed foul call, which is normally upgraded to a flagrant 1 foul. Instead, the Bucks got a 5-on-4 break the other way as Tatum laid on the floor in pain.
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Mazzulla did not mince words after the win upon voicing his displeasure with the missed whistle.
“That’s ridiculous,” Mazzulla said. “You can’t miss that, can’t miss that.”
Tatum went on to score 23 of his 31 points in the second half despite the injury scare, but acknowledged after the game his ankle was a little sore. Mazzulla credited his All-Star for moving on from the troubling sequence rather than lingering on it with officials.
“He didn’t let it impact it the rest of the game on either end of the floor,” Mazzulla said. “The refs did a great job, they knew they missed it. Any time you can have the relationship where they saw it and they did it and you just move on. He’s hurt an ankle before and it could have got him that time. Credit to him for handling it the right way.”
Tatum will have about 48 hours to rest the ankle before the Celtics host the Hawks in the opening game of the NBA Cup pool play on Tuesday night at TD Garden. With a back-to-back looming on Wednesday, it will be worth keeping an eye on Tatum’s health status for those contests. Tatum has not missed a game amid Boston’s 9-2 start to the year.
