As their Game 1 victory over the Miami Heat deteriorated, including fights with Jaime Jaquez Jr. and Caleb Martin at the conclusion of the game, Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown stuck by each other.
Jaime objected to a hard foul during the transition, and Tatum made fun of him for it, asking if he wanted to weep.
“What the f*ck are you doing?” asked Jaime Jaquez Jr.
“You gonna cry?” asked Jayson Tatum.
Then, it appears that Tatum was being aggressive and attempting to get a rebound when Caleb Martin hip-checked him in an attempt to send a message to the Celtics. Brown ran to his teammate’s aid and accompanied Martin back and forth.
In the past five years, this squad’s current incarnations have only met four times. Before the Celtics exacted their revenge in a seven-game Conference Finals victory in 2022, the Heat had defeated them in 2020. The biggest surprise came from the previous season, when the eighth-seeded Heat defeated the Celtics in the Conference Finals, almost blowing a 3-0 lead.
Jimmy Butler’s injury sustained in the Play-In tournament means that this year’s series is different. With a 114-94 victory in Game 1, the Celtics have already taken control of the series and are expected to prevail.
In the victory, Tatum recorded a triple-double of 23 points, while Brown finished with 17 points and 8 rebounds. Martin lacked a potent offensive game.
