Celtics using Jayson Tatum-Caleb Martin clash as fuel for physicality

Success has been the enemy of the Boston Celtics all season. Their historic 64-win regular season was not a product of welcoming triumph with open arms. Instead, while they appreciated their accomplishments, they refused to rest on their laurels.

“If we’re just going to sit back and be happy after every win, then that’s an unhealthy relationship with success, and it’s going to come back to bite us in the a**,” Joe Mazzulla said after their January 13 win over the Houston Rockets.

In Game 1 of their series against the Miami Heat, the Celtics won in blowout fashion. They punched Miami in the mouth from the opening tip, parlaying a 14-0 run to start the game into a dominant 114-94 victory.

A fourth-quarter Heat surge highlighted by Delon Wright going 5/5 from deep splashed some water in Boston’s face after they started sleepwalking. But that wasn’t their true wake-up call.

With roughly a minute left in the game, as Jayson Tatum was going for a rebound, Caleb Martin came careening into him. He undercut Tatum, causing the Celtics star to fall flat on his back.

Tatum popped up quickly, and it looked as though Martin’s momentum was swayed by a Jrue Holiday shove, but none of that matters to the Celtics.

“I seen a guy go down, and you know, I got my guy’s back 10 times out of 10,” Jaylen Brown said at practice on Tuesday. “You can’t tell what’s what in the heat of the moment, but it looked like something a little extra. So I said something. But it looked like it was just basketball. It wasn’t intentional. So we keep moving.”

As Martin went to help Tatum up, Brown slapped his hand out of the way. The two players got into an altercation that led to double technicals.

“I just told him to watch that, you know, making sure it’s basketball plays being made out there,” Brown said. “We know they like to play hard and be physical, but there is a line. So just making sure that we’re not compromising the integrity of the game.

“So, I just told him to watch it. At the time, it looked like — can’t tell all of the components, but from what I saw – that’s all I did. I just let them know that.”

Had the Celtics rolled on with their blowout of the Heat in Game 1, narratives would have been different. Boston’s dominance would have created a boring news cycle of “Do the Heat have a chance?”

Now, Boston has even more wood to fuel the fire.

“Nah, I think we like that,” Pritchard said of if there would be any carryover from the incident. “I think it was a joy to see that. And what it’s going to be like moving forward. And we’re ready for that test. That physicality. And you could even see when JT got up right away, it didn’t phase him.

“Teammates had his back. So, we’re just one big family. We take care of each other.”

It’s natural for a team to take their foot off the gas a little bit when in a position as dominant as the one Boston was in on Sunday. And when Miami came out red-hot in the fourth—they shot 13/14 to open the quarter—the Celtics’ drop-off in energy was a part of the problem. “I would say 70/30 we can control,” Mazzulla said of what went into Miami’s run.

But now, combined with Martin’s hit on Tatum and Bam Adebayo’s questionable screening, the Celtics have ammo. And they plan to funnel it into physicality.

“Better is just doing what we did with higher intensity and higher physicality – I think that’s what Game 2s call for,” Mazzulla said. “The first adjustment is to do what you did with a higher level of intensity and a higher level of physicality. The small details we can get better [at] on at both ends of the floor. [We] worked on that today, but I think the first step is what mindset [and] what physicality we’re coming in with.”

Photo by Megan Briggs/Getty Images

The Celtics and Heat have a history that extends multiple decades. Toughness has defined the matchup. Hard hits. High-intensity basketball.

From Dwyane Wade’s dubious play against Rajon Rondo in 2011 to Jaylen Brown’s arm rip on Duncan Robinson from this regular season, it doesn’t matter what the environment is. When these two teams step onto the floor together, it’s going to be a war.

But now, Boston isn’t just prepared for it: They want it.

“I would say so,” Brown said when asked if the Celtics are more ready to embrace confrontation now than in the past. “That’s what it is. Every game is a fight. You gotta win the game, and you gotta win the fight. Both of those things are important, and we embrace both.

“Being the better, smarter team, but also being a team that is willing to dive on the floor. Being a team that is able to set the tone physically not back down. So you got to win the game, and you got to win the fight.”

Every time a member of the Celtics gets asked about Matin’s play on Tatum, it’s met with a positive response. Mazzulla liked watching it. Pritchard said it was a joy. Brown was eager to back up his teammate. That’s the mindset.

Boston’s relationship with success could have been put to the test had they cruised to a win. But Miami threw in some heavy blows toward the end of the game. Both metaphorically and literally.

And the Celtics are glad that they did.