The Celtics saw Kristaps Porzingis exit early from Boston’s Game 4 win over the Miami Heat on Monday night and nearly saw Jayson Tatum go down with an injury, too.
It almost turned into a calamitous situation for the Celtics star with 5:04 left in the fourth quarter. Derrick White came to set a pick for Tatum at the top of the key but White was pushed from behind by Miami guard Patty Mills.
The play was blown dead with Mills being called for a foul, but as is common practice in the NBA, Tatum attempted a shot after the whistle. Heat star Bam Adebayo swiped at the shot and came into the landing space of Tatum, who twisted his ankle on Adebayo’s foot.
Tatum immediately fell to the floor clutching his ankle but walked it off and played the rest of the game. He tried to downplay the incident when he addressed it following Boston’s 102-88 win at Kaseya Center.
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“I mean, y’all saw it. I shot the ball afterward, landed on his foot,” Tatum told reporters, per league-provided video. “The same ankle that I hurt in Game 7 last year, that I hurt against the Warriors, that I tweaked against the Clippers. So it didn’t feel good at first but yeah, it was just that.
“And I don’t want to make it a bigger deal than what it is. Little play, I wasn’t tripping, moved on, kept playing, worried about the rest of the game.”
Tatum did admit though that rolling his ankle did get his blood to boil.
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“I was mad. Just cause it’s the same ankle,” Tatum said. “But I’ve tweaked my ankle 1,000 times playing this game, so it was throbbing, but the adrenaline made it wear off I guess and just kept playing.”
Adebayo was assessed a flagrant foul 1 and Al Horford, who gave the Heat forward a good nudge on his way over to check on Tatum, picked up a technical foul.
Horford coming to his defense surely was noticed and appreciated by Tatum.
“That’s the OG. We’re all on the team together. We’re all brothers. So, right or wrong, you’ve gotta rock with your brother, and that’s what we do,” Tatum said. “If we see something we don’t like, or whatever it is, we stand up for each other. And it’s contagious.”
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This was just the latest dustup in the Celtics-Heat series, which Boston holds a commanding 3-1 lead. Tatum was on the other end of a hard foul from Caleb Martin in Game 1 while Martin and Celtics point guard Payton Pritchard got face-to-face in Game 3.
Featured image via Michael Laughlin/USA TODAY Sports Images
