The Celtics’ 103-86 victory over the Magic in Game 1 of the Eastern Conference quarterfinals didn’t come without a scare. But Jayson Tatum insisted that’s all his fall in the fourth quarter was.
Tatum shared that X-rays on his right wrist came back negative after he awkwardly fell on it while getting fouled during a dunk attempt.
“It’s clean, it’s good,” Tatum told reporters of his wrist.
While Tatum brushed aside any concern about the injury, his initial reaction helped spark some worry. Tatum remained down on the court for a few moments after Magic guard Kentavious Caldwell-Pope fouled him as he went in for a dunk.
Tatum got up and remained in the game, but he was seen wincing in pain as he grabbed his wrist when he was sitting on the bench at one point later on.
Still, Tatum insisted that everything was OK with his wrist.
“It’s all right,” said. “Just landed on it, fell on it.
“I just landed on it. It was throbbing for a second. It kind of went away.”
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The moment also caused some early tension between the two teams in the series. Al Horford seemed to take exception with Caldwell-Pope’s foul, which was upgraded to a Flagrant 1 Foul upon review. After the game, a video emerged on social media of Tatum’s mom, Brandy Cole, asking him if she needed to go to the Magic locker room.
Tatum wasn’t asked about the video of his mom in his post-game press conference, but he downplayed any possible animosity that might brew between the two teams over the moment.
“I mean, playoff basketball. It was a lot of fun out there,” Tatum said of the physicality in Sunday’s game. “It felt good to be back in the playoffs, kind of playing a game like that in this environment. It was fun.”
As Tatum avoided a major injury, he didn’t have his best showing on Sunday. The Celtics star scored 17 points on 8 of 22 shooting, making just one of the eight 3-pointers he took.
Celtics coach Joe Mazzulla thought Tatum played well through those shooting woes, though, as he finished with 14 rebounds and a game-high plus/minus of plus-23.
“Obviously, he probably didn’t play the efficient offensive game that he would have liked, but I thought his poise, you couldn’t tell that,” Mazzulla said. “That never got in the way of his defense and his physicality and his rebounding.
“That’s the most important thing. He’s going to score, he’s going to put us in position to be successful, but you’ve got to answer the call defensively, physicality-wise. I thought he did that, especially rebounding in the second half.”
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