The Boston Celtics kicked off their playoff run on Sunday afternoon, welcoming the Orlando Magic to town for Game 1 of their first-round series. Paolo Banchero and Franz Wagner led the way for the Magic, but nobody else on Orlando’s roster provided them with much offensive support. Meanwhile, Derrick White and Payton Pritchard combined to score 59.
But hidden amidst the Celtics’ dominant second-half performance was an ugly play that ended with Jayson Tatum writhing in pain on the ground. He went up to dunk the ball, but Kentavious Caldwell-Pope met him there, sending Tatum crashing to the ground with a dangerous play.
Immediately, the air was sucked out of the building at TD Garden.
Joe Mazzulla screamed at Jayson Tatum to get up after his injury in Game 1 of Celtics vs. Magic
As Tatum was lying on the ground, grabbing his wrist, which he seemingly smacked against the backboard (and got bent awkwardly on the ground) on the play, the Celtics gathered around him. At the same time, head coach Joe Mazzulla was looking on from the sideline.
A Celtics trainer walked up next to him, ready to go onto the court and check on Tatum. But Mazzulla stopped him, and from the looks of it, told him not to go out on the court yet.
Mazzulla then sipped his water, put the cap back on, and screamed at Tatum. “Get up,” he yelled from the sideline, urging Tatum to pick himself up without assistance from the trainers.
The medical staff eventually went out onto the floor to help Tatum, but Mazzulla was hoping he would simply get up on his own.
Few people noticed this in real-time on the broadcast, but Dan Greenberg of Barstool posted the clip on Twitter, and Celtics fans ate it up. It was yet another example of how psychotically deranged Mazzulla can be.
From killer whales to telling his assistant coaches that they were all (including himself) going to get fired back in January when the Celtics were struggling, Mazzulla has built up a reputation of being completely outlandish. And when it comes to coaching his guys, he can be ruthless.
After the game, Tatum said that his wrist ended up being fine, though it was throbbing for a moment when the incident occurred. X-rays on the issue also came back negative, which is a great sign moving forward.
But seeing how tough Mazzulla is on Tatum—getting to see him coach up his star player in real-time, promoting toughness over everything—is a perfect example of why Celtics fans have fallen in love with their head coach.
