OKLAHOMA CITY — Celtics fans held their breath when they saw Jayson Tatum lying on the ground after a hard fall. Tatum was going for the loose ball in the third quarter. But Jalen Williams bumped him, which resulted in Tatum seemingly landing on the ball in an awkward, scary fall. Here’s a look at the play.
Tatum eventually got up and returned to the Celtics huddle during the timeout. But he was down on the court for a few moments as C’s fans were certainly worried about their star player’s status. Fortunately, Tatum returned to the game soon afterwards as he ended up being fine.
“I’m cool,” Tatum said postgame. “My arm is just bruised. I kind of went forearm first into the chair. It’s bruised, scraped all up, but we’ll be all right.”
Tatum finished with 26 points and 10 rebounds, but the C’s were lifeless against the Thunder in the second half of the loss. After scoring 65 points in the first half, they put together just 27 in the final two quarters. The Thunder overcame the 10-point halftime deficit to dominate the C’s down the stretch.
The Celtics blamed their offense after the game, saying they didn’t battle enough to get consistent good looks. That wasn’t a problem as part of an impressive second quarter, where they generated buckets even if the 3-pointers weren’t going down.
So, all the Celtics can do is learn from Sunday’s loss. They have a chance to finish their four-game road trip strong as they take on the Nuggets at 10 p.m. Tuesday in Denver coming up.
“Obviously, teams are scouting us and trying to disrupt us and we’ve just got to match their physicality for 48 minutes and own our space,” Tatum said. “At least it’s possible to not let them dictate where we’re supposed to be and where we want to let them get to. That’s really important to us.”
- BETTING: Check out our MA sports betting guidewhere you can learn basic terminology, definitions and how to read odds for those interested in learning how to bet in Massachusetts.
