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Baxter Holmes
BOSTON — Celtics veteran Al Horford reiterated his belief that the Orlando Magic stepped over the line with their physicality on Jayson Tatum in Boston’s Game 1 win Sunday as the star hit the injury report Tuesday following a hard fall.
Tatum is listed as doubtful for Game 2 on Wednesday due to a bone bruise in his right wrist.
“Yeah, there was something extra,” Horford said. “There was a lot. It was the second or third time that — especially [Kentavious Caldwell-Pope] — went at him in that way.”
The play that appeared to irk Horford — and injure Tatum — was one in which Caldwell-Pope and Wendell Carter Jr. collided with Tatum midair while the Celtics forward was driving for a two-handed dunk in the fourth quarter. The usually stoic Horford expressed his outrage following the play and gestured toward nearby Magic players, especially Caldwell-Pope, who was called for a flagrant foul.
“I’m not sure what goes into [plays like that],” Horford said. “[The] only thing I would say is that it’s the playoffs, so the game is going to be more physical, it’s going to be more intense. I feel like those plays are probably going to happen more often than not.”
Tatum landed hard on his right wrist on the play but remained in the game. He finished with 17 points on 8-of-22 shooting to go along with a game-high 14 rebounds but was seen favoring his wrist.
X-rays on the wrist were negative after the game. On Tuesday, Celtics coach Joe Mazzulla said Tatum was able to do “some stuff” at practice.
“Just sore after the game; it’s gotten a little better today,” Mazzulla said. “He’s going to go through some on-court work and go from there.”
When asked if he believed the seventh-seeded Magic were trying to intimidate the second-seeded Celtics with physical play, Boston reserve guard Payton Pritchard said Tuesday, “I don’t feel intimidated.”
“Obviously, they fouled him hard, and then he had a little fall, but it’s not going to stop us from what we’re trying to achieve,” he said. “It’s not going to knock us off our path.”
Immediately after Tatum went down on the play, Mazzulla appeared to briefly hold a Celtics training official back from attending to Tatum before yelling “get up” at Tatum, who remained on the floor. When asked about the moment Tuesday, Mazzulla offered a one-word answer: “Love.”
“I think at the end of the day I’m grateful for the relationship that I have with the guys,” he said. “I’m grateful for the relationship that I have with him. And you love guys in different ways. But everything is built on love. Everything is built on the relationship that we have, their self-expression.
“They allow me to be who I am. And they trust [me and] we have a trust for each other, but it all starts with love. And so in that moment it looks different in different moments, but I appreciate who he is as a competitor and our team in that moment, but it all starts with that.”
