"Watch that s**t": Jaylen Brown's alleged heated argument with Caleb Martin revealed after crashing into Jayson Tatum
Jayson Tatum and the Boston Celtics tipped off their 2024 NBA Playoffs with a dominating 114-94 win over arch-rivals Miami Heat on Sunday. As expected, it didn't take too long for players from each team to get into heated altercations. The game had multiple lowlights where players went at it amid the intense atmosphere at the TD Garden.
Matching up for the fourth time, the teams looked to physically dominate the contest right from the start. It involved a couple of rough fouls on Jayson Tatum and Jaime Jaquez Jr., followed by a heated verbal exchange between the players. The foul on Jayson Tatum with a minute left in the game prompted one of the most tense moments.
With the game almost over and the Celtics holding a 16-point lead, Martin crashed into Tatum, which saw Brown go at the Heat forward. Players from both teams got involved in the melee to avoid escalating the situation further. An "X" user, who goes by the handle "@legendz_NBA," leaked the alleged exchange between Brown and Martin.
"Watch that s**t," Brown allegedly told Martin.
"You're not like that," Martin replied.
Before the incident, Tatum got called for a hard foul in transition on Jaquez Jr. The Heat rookie wasn't impressed with Tatum's actions, which sparked a conversation between the two as Jaquez Jr. said:
"What the f**k are you doing?"
Meanwhile, Tatum mockingly replied to that, saying:
"You're gonna cry about that?"
Jayson Tatum and Joe Mazzulla react to Caleb Martin foul after controversial take from Celtics analyst
Caleb Martin's foul on Jayson Tatum made the headlines after the Celtics' Game 1 win over the Heat. Many from the Celtics side felt it was an unnecessary foul as one of Boston's analysts, Brian Scalabrine, deemed it to be "shady."
He insinuated the Heat had potentially planned to commit a foul. Scalabrine recounted Erik Spoelstra calling for a timeout 30 seconds before that incident.
"I'm not trying to start nothing here but Erik Spoelstra called a timeout with a 1:30 left down by 16, 30 seconds later that play happens ... Why is he calling a timeout 1:30, down 16? Why is that play happening 30 seconds later. I don't know, man, that looked shady to me."
However, Jayson Tatum seemed unfazed by what went down. He didn't read too much into that foul, downplaying the contact, saying it was "playoff basketball" and that he expects it to be like this with how physical the Heat have played.
"S*** going to happen. Not the last time I'm probably going to get hit like that or fouled in this series," Tatum said.
On the other hand, Joe Mazulla hinted he was more "excited" to see what Tatum was planning to do after that foul. The latter got up making it seem like he was about to go at it with Caleb Martin. However, Tatum calmly walked toward the other end to make his free throws.