Miami Heat forward Caleb Martin collided with Boston Celtics star Jayson Tatum with a minute left in the fourth quarter of Game 1 of the first round of the playoffs, causing the latter to fall to the ground. The immediate reaction of fans and some media at the time was that Martin's action was very dirty and intended to deliberately injure the opponent's number one star, and Martin, Heat head coach Eric Spoelstra and All-Star center Bam Adebayo responded positively before today's intra-team practice.
"Anyone who knows me knows I'm not the type of player who needs to do something to hurt someone in order to win, and the first thing I did at the time was to turn around and see if he was okay, and if I really wanted to hurt him, I would just walk away, I'm not that kind of person," Martin said. It's a playoff game, serious fouls happen all the time, and if the roles were reversed, I wouldn't think anyone would call it deliberate, it's just that it just happened. If anyone watched the game, they would see that I was clearly pushed to Tatum by Celtics guard Jrue Holiday . I was going to make a dunk, but this push changed my course and that's what happened. When the players are racing at full speed, things happen and I never try to hurt anybody. ”
Martin believes that the foul was an accident, and as he mentioned, we can clearly see in the slow-motion replay that he was indeed pushed by Holiday before he failed to control his body and caused an accidental collision with Tatum. Heat head coach Spoelstra also said: "It's a good, clean, tough, physically confrontational playoff basketball move, and that's going to be with Boston and us for a long time." This is not excessive, and the coalition does not need to investigate any side more and not need to pay much attention. It's a tough, competitive game of basketball, and that's what everybody wants, and what the fans want, what the players want, and even the league wants, and they want the level of competition that they're seeing. ”
There's no doubt that the intensity of the game is really strong, and the Heat, who are already a tough team, are clearly looking to incorporate Game 2 into their accustomed rhythm given their first game loss, and Game 2 of the first round will be played on Thursday at TD Garden, home of the Celtics, where the Heat, without star Jimmy Butler, will once again challenge for the top spot in the league.