There were probably some empty seats at the dinner table and plenty of leftover chicken wings at Grant Williams’ house on Friday night.
Prior to the first game of the weekend mini-series between the Celtics and Hornets on Friday, Williams said he had talked to some of his former Celtic teammates about potentially getting together and hanging out after the game.
That was before Williams charged at Tatum, lowering his shoulder into his so-called friend like a prime Brian Dawkins
“I was trying to make a play on the ball,” Williams said. “JT is one of my closest friends in the league. There is no intention to harm him in any way.”
That’s not how the Celtics saw it. Tatum, who spent four seasons with Williams in Boston, popped right up and headed to the free-throw line, while Williams caught an earful from Jaylen Brown, who is never one to shy away from defending a teammate.
“It was for sure intentional. What are we talking about? Y’all see the same play that I was seeing?” Brown said after the game. “He hit him like it was a football play. Like Ray Lewis coming across the middle or something. It is what it is. Grant knows better than that.”
Brown had to be held back by assistant coach Tony Dobbins as he yelled at Williams.
“I ride for all my guys in the locker room,” Brown said. “Teams like to send messages and try to set the tone and do all type of stuff to either get us out of character or mess with our minds or make us feel like we are soft. We’re not going for none of that. That’s it. We’re just not going for that.”
After an official review, the personal foul was upgraded to a flagrant two foul, and Williams was ejected from the game.
“I don’t know what that was about. I think that spoke for itself,” Brown added. “Actions speak loud. It is what it is. We got the win, and we move on, but there’s no place in the game for that. I thought JT and Grant were friends. I guess not.”
Six seconds after being bodied by Williams, another flagrant foul was called on a play on Tatum. This time, a flagrant one on LaMelo Ball for stepping under Tatum’s foot on a three-point attempt.
The five free points at the line due to flagrant fouls helped push Tatum’s point total on the night to a game-high 32, to go with his 11 rebounds, three assists, and three steals. It marked Tatum’s 42nd career 30-point, 10-rebound double-double, which ranks third in Celtics’ history, behind just John Havlicek (54) and Larry Bird (120).
Of course, Mazzulla, the man who wants to see basketball welcome fighting, loved the physicality.
“I loved it, it was great. It was tremendous,” Mazzulla said. “Physical game. The guys handled it well, had great poise, and had great execution. Wouldn’t have it any other way.”
The Celtics clung to a one-point lead with 8:09 left in the game, but aided by two flagrant fouls, two technicals, and two ejections—Williams and Miles Bridges, who was tossed after punching the ball into the stands—the Celtics closed on a 24-10 run, turning a tight contest into a double-digit victory.
Although the Celtics lost out on many of the key margins Mazzulla keeps an eye on—they were outshot (91-86), made fewer threes (19-13), and outrebounded (42-41)—he was pleased with his team’s effort.
“They outshot us from three, but we got to the free-throw line, and I thought we just made winning plays,” Mazzulla said after the game. “This season’s about finding ways to win and building identities, and I thought tonight was a step in that direction.”
Boston won’t have to wait long for another look at Williams and Charlotte. The two will meet tomorrow night for the second night of the back-to-back tomorrow at 6 pm.
“We’ve just gotta come back and compete at a high level,” White said. “That’s all it is. I think they’ll come out aggressive, and we’ve gotta be ready to go.”