The crowd at TD Garden held their breath as they saw Jayson Tatum fall violently to the ground, onto his lower back. There was one minute left to play when Caleb Martin, whose Heat was trailing by 16 points, wanted to play this offensive rebound. But, caught in his momentum, he pushed the Celtics player.
Seeing his opponent on the ground, the Heat player first extended a hand to help Jayson Tatum get up. While his teammate got up alone, Jaylen Brown intervened. The tone rose a bit to the point of generating a double technical fault between Martin and Brown.
“ These are the playoffs. We know it's going to be physical, it's the kind of match we want. It's the time of year when everything speeds up, when the intensity and physical dimension increase. No matter what, we must stay the course and remain mentally stable. Especially when you are in an environment where you are facing a big team, you know what awaits you. So we must continue to fight “, justifies Caleb Martinaware of having committed a “ big mistake “.
Accused of wanting to hurt him
The latter, accused by Brian Scalabrine for seeking to hurt Celtic, said he was not surprised or annoyed by Jaylen Brown's behavior at the time. He would have had the same reaction to defend a teammate in a similar situation: “ I got carried away and I think I was pushed in that direction. Big mistake. I tried to pick it up. It's like that. If Jimmy (Butler) was on the field, I would have done the same thing, I'm sure. »
For his part, Jayson Tatum, who kept his calm during the action, was not shocked: “ You just have to understand that we are now playing playoff basketball. It's a physical game, it's a physical team, there's going to be some trouble. This probably won't be the last time I'll take a hit like that in this series. I knew we were in the bonus, so I just had to get up and make my throws. »
The incident was also closed during the game. Because a few seconds later, the same Caleb Martin bit Jayson Tatum's 3-point feint. The first hugged the second, to avoid another fall, and ended up giving him a friendly pat on the buttocks.
