Playoff basketball is different from regular season basketball in many ways in the NBA. One of the most notable ways is how much more physical the action can be and how feelings and tempers can increase as teams do battle over multiple games. Game 1 of the Celtics-Heat series on Sunday certainly kicked up a few notches thanks to a hard foul from Miami’s Caleb Martin on Boston star Jayson Tatum. And it was one Celtics analyst Brian Scalabrine seriously questioned.
The Celtics ran out to an enormous lead early on in Game 1 and were pretty much in cruise control throughout the entire contest against a shorthanded Heat team without playoff superstar Jimmy Butler.
However, late in the game with just about a minute left, Martin delivered a hip check to Tatum that belonged more in the Stanley Cup Playoffs than the NBA Playoffs with the Celtics up 110-94. And given the timing and the fact the game was well in hand, Scalabrine sounded off on how suspicious it was in the postgame on NBC Sports Boston.
“I’m not trying to start nothing here, but Erik Spoelstra called a timeout with 1:30 down by 16, 30 seconds later that play happens. 30 seconds later? Why have you called a timeout at 1:30 down 16? Why is that play happening 30 seconds later… that looked shady to me,” Scalabrine said.
“To me it’s a dirty play. I think Martin should get suspended for that. That’s a dirty play. You can’t do that, just think about that. The NBA is about the star players, the idea of winning a championship is your star players have to stay healthy. And a guy goes up and you just ram into him? That ain’t basketball,” Scalabrine continued.
To this point, the NBA hasn’t taken action on Martin for the foul, but the Celtics–Heat series that most assume will be over in four or five games just got a lot more interesting to see if there’s more drama in Game 2.