BOSTON — Jayson Tatum was ejected for just the second time in his Celtics career on Friday night in Boston’s win over the 76ers. The controversial sequence took place in the closing seconds of the third quarter and the Celtics All-Star took issue with the ejection after the game for his second technical foul.
“Following a loose ball foul that was called on Jayson, Jayson continued to complain and was asked multiple times to head to his bench,” official Bill Kennedy said of the ejection in a pool report. “He continued to complain about the foul called on the floor and overtly gestures toward the officials and was assessed a second technical foul.”
Joe Mazzulla was not involved in the scramble of Tatum’s ejection in the closing seconds of the quarter as assistants Charles Lee and Sam Cassell were the main witnesses to the exchange.
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“I don’t really know what led to his ejection,” Mazzulla said. “There was like one second on the clock, and I was trying to figure out what we were going to do as far as where the ball was, and then what our lineup was to start the fourth quarter. So I missed a small portion of that.”
Despite not witnessing the encounter unclose, Mazzulla was defensive of Tatum after the game and even praised his star forward’s fire during the sequence.
“I actually like some of that,” Mazzulla admitted. “I think some of that is important. Obviously, you don’t want it to get in the way of where it gets in the way of winning, but I think that type of passion and caring about it, I err on the side of I’d rather see that and then nothing at all. Sometimes pick and choose your spots, but I’m not going to say anything to him.”
The Celtics went on to rally without Tatum in the fourth quarter for a 125-119 victory that kept the team undefeated at TD Garden on the season.
“I thought everybody stepped up,” Mazzulla said. “And that’s just kind of the team that we have, and credit to them. I thought they did a great job executing on both ends of the floor. We went double big there, and we were able to give it a different look, and I thought the guys just did what they had to do to win.”
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