Jayson Tatum was tossed from a game for just the second time in his seven-year NBA career when the Celtics hosted the 76ers on Friday night.
Already struggling to shake off a gritty, dirt dog-like effort from an undermanned Philadelphia team, Tatum made matters worse for Boston.
In the final seconds of the third quarter, Tatum was charged with a loose ball foul on 76ers forward Robert Covington — which was later upgraded to a flagrant 1. In response, Tatum got chirpy with the officials, resulting in the 25-year-old racking up his second technical foul of the night and an ejection.
Boston’s No. 1 star, however, wasn’t the only one displeased with the officiating throughout the night, as mentioned by Sixers head coach Nick Nurse after the Celtics escaped with a 125-119 win at TD Garden.
Story continues below advertisement
“There was lots of barking by both teams, right? And they lost a player which I thought was unfortunate. I hate to see that,” Sixers head coach Nick Nurse told reporters postgame. “Especially somebody like him, you know, (someone) everybody comes to see play. I don’t know what happened, but obviously, players from both sides were frustrated.”
MORE CELTICS
Tatum’s early exit stranded the Celtics, who were already without Kristaps Porzingis (calf injury), for the fourth quarter. At that point, Boston still hadn’t grown a notable enough lead to ease the concerns and threats of a loss without the assistance of its four-time All-Star.
Taking notice of that, Philadelphia — without Joel Embiid, Tyrese Maxey and Nicholas Batum — didn’t back down, giving the Celtics a run for their money.
Story continues below advertisement
“Our guys, just across the board, we were fighting and I think we totally outplayed them and just thought we didn’t get any breaks at the end,” Nurse added. “We were figuring out a lot of things on the fly tonight with a lot of new people. … Again, really good effort. Gave ourselves a chance.”
While valiant, that chance still wasn’t enough to keep Boston from improving to a NBA-best 15-4 record and remain in first place in the Eastern Conference.
