The Celtics suffered a disappointing loss to the Phoenix Suns on Friday night, but one person in particular was able to put the Boston locker room in a better mood.
Deuce Tatum, the 5-year-old son of Jayson Tatum, is frequently seen courtside taking in Celtics games and often becoming the star of the show. His time to shine came after Friday's loss when Deuce was just trying to catch up to his dad.
"Probably bad on me, but I always bring Deuce to the locker room," Jayson Tatum told reporters Monday, per MassLive's Souichi Terada. "I was frustrated this day and I was walking down the hallway and I forgot to grab him. All you hear is footsteps running down the hallway, screaming, 'Daddy, daddy, daddy.' Then he ran into the locker room and gave me a hug.
"I remember Rob (Williams) looked at me and said, 'Man, (expletive) puts stuff in perspective.' Joe (Mazzulla) came in and was like, 'Deuce, it's good to see you.' It just kind of lightened the room a little bit. Obviously, didn't shoot well, didn't play well. But just hearing him run down the hallway and scream my name and come in and didn't care about how many points I scored or we lost or run, just wanted to be there in with the guys. Kind of made everybody feel a little bit better."
Maybe the interaction was just what the Celtics needed. After all, they earned a bounce-back win against the Detroit Pistons on Monday night, Sam Hauser got his first career start with the C's and Tatum drained a game-high 34 points.
The Celtics still have the best record in the NBA at 38-16 and look to build on that Wednesday night when they welcome the Philadelphia 76ers to TD Garden for a 7:30 p.m. ET tip.
