Miami Heat player Caleb Martin sparked outrage among Boston Celtics fans when he collided with Jayson Tatum, who was in the air attempting to collect a rebound and fell hard on his back late in Game 1 of their first-round series on Sunday.
Fortunately for the Boston Celtics, Tatum recovered from the harrowing fall and finished the game, but many labelled Martin’s actions as ‘dirty’, prompting the Nevada product to defend himself in a recent interview.
“I mean, anybody who knows me, I don’t feel the need to try to take out guys in order to beat somebody,” Caleb Martin remarked during a media scrum via Bobby Manning on X (previously Twitter). “The first thing I did was turn around and make sure he was okay. If I was trying to take someone out, I would have simply walked away.”
“This is the playoffs, and hard fouls occur frequently. If the roles were reversed, I doubt anyone would have called it a ‘code red’. “It just happened,” he explained.
The NBA decided not to punish Caleb Martin for his harsh foul on Jayson Tatum, but there may be more difficult moments in the future, especially given the Miami Heat’s reputation for violent play.
Miami Heat needs a bounce-back performance
The Boston Celtics showed everyone why they are the finest team in the NBA, defeating the Miami Heat 114-94 in Game 1, despite the fact that Miami was without Jimmy Butler.
Jayson Tatum had his first postseason triple-double, scoring 23 points, 10 rebounds, and 10 assists, while Derrick White, Kristaps Porzingis, Jaylen Brown, Sam Hauser, and Al Horford all scored in double figures for Boston.
Bam Adebayo led the Miami Heat with 24 points, six rebounds, and three assists, while Delon Wright and Jaime Jaquez Jr. added 17 and 16 points, respectively.
Tyler Herro, the player Miami counts on to fill in for Jimmy Butler, had 11 points on 4-of-13 shooting, while Caleb Martin had only four points in 26 minutes.
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