Jayson Tatum Shakes Off Grant Williams Foul as Celtics Sweep Hornets

CHARLOTTE — Everyone awaited more fireworks in the sequel. Grant Williams received a spot start and Tatum returned following the flagrant foul Williams committed against him without having commented on the situation. Jaylen Brown, who provided the fiercest rebuke of Williams, missed the game with a hip injury. Boos rained down from the Celtics fans who largely filled the crowd. Tatum didn’t acknowledge Williams as he walked to half court to take the tip-off against Luke Kornet.

The sequel, from that point on, lacked the tension and sparks of the original. The Celtics held the short-handed Hornets at arm’s length throughout, answered their most threatening run in the third quarter and left with a 113-103 win without further incident. Williams made a brief attempt to greet Celtics at half court, but Tatum left the floor immediately after scoring 29 points in 33 minutes. The Boston Globe reported that Tatum accepted an apology from Williams, despite his annoyance, after the game on Friday.

“I don’t really want to talk about it,” Tatum said on Saturday. “I got ready for the game today, we came to Charlotte, did what we were supposed to do, and we’re going to Atlanta to try to get another win.”

Tatum lined up against Williams twice in the first half for threes that fell way off on a 1-for-9 night. On offense, Williams received boos each time he touched the ball. Beyond that, Friday’s dramatic dust-up between former teammates didn’t flow into a sequel. A few moments late, including Derrick White brushing off Williams as he stood in his way of in-bounding, which sent the latter spilling to the floor, caused official John Butler to stretch his arms between them as a Celtics security official approached nearby. Nothing escalated from there.

Instead, Tatum built on a 13-point first quarter capped by a pull-up three in front of Caleb Martin that fell despite Tatum shooting off-balance for his only make. Later in the second, he rolled after screening for Jrue Holiday, drew a defender from the corner and found White for three through Holiday in the wing. Tatum finished the first half with 17 points on 5-of-10 shooting. White shot 3-for-7 from three, finishing 4-of-13.

“That’s the problem,” Mazzulla said when asked about Tatum’s stat line. “They doubled him and he made the right play every time, and they need to put potential assists and screen assists (in the box score). I thought he made the right play almost every single time … I thought he played a great game. I mean, he shot 17 free throws.”

Kornet added 11 points in 15 first half minutes, able to catch the ball and either lay it in easily over a Hornets front line missing Mark Williams and Nick Richards after the latter suffered a shoulder injury on Friday. That left Grant, rookie Tidjane Salaün and veteran Taj Gibson, who hadn’t played this season, all standing far below Kornet’s seven-foot height. He also reached the perimeter to force Grant to awkwardly shoot a floater off the top of the glass driving baseline and blocked Brandon Miller’s corner three to begin the third quarter.

Charlotte burst out of halftime after shooting 10-of-27 in the second quarter, pulling back within single digits on a long Grant three in transition over Tatum before Miller’s three on the following possession made it a 14-0 run. He received a chance to tie the game at 70 several possessions later, but missed a three after colliding with Kornet on the previous possession that ended in Kornet getting called for an offensive foul.

Later, he successfully lobbied for an out of bounds challenge call contesting a rebound behind Al Horford, though a more modest effort to get Charles Lee to overturn his three-point foul defending Tatum didn’t work. Payton Pritchard barely unleashed a lob to Neemias Queta as his pivot foot began sliding on the drive and Sam Hauser, playing again through back pain, hit a three to secure an 11-point lead entering the fourth.

Tatum sat for over seven minutes to begin the fourth while Ball hit back-to-back threes to pressure the Celtics. Charlotte’s star shot 12-of-18 after starting 0-of-5 while Boston built a 15-point first half advantage. White and Kornet responded with a two-man game that got the latter a dunk ahead by only seven. Mazzulla successfully challenged a foul call on Kornet, reversing it to Grant on a box-out that gave Kornet free throws that propelled him to 19 points when he capped his night 6-for-6 with a lob from Holiday.

Tatum stepped back in fresh and drew three free throws pulling up over Ball, then lined up Grant one more time, drove far ahead of him, dunked with two hands and rocked back into him with a slight bump. He scored 27 points on 7-of-15 shooting.

“Jayson, that’s why he’s such a dangerous player,” Lee said after the game. “He now has the ability to play isolation basketball, he is also trusting his teammates more and more in every situation, so now he’s a willing passer. I think he’s always been capable and now he’s just even more willing to pass. Then he’s got great players around him to also be able to make plays. We had to find our balance of, are you gonna let him play isolation in this situation versus this defender, or versus a different defender, I know they have shooting out there, but we just don’t wanna see him get another field goal attempt … you trap him, he gets off of it and you think you can deny him, and now all of a sudden he’s moving without the ball to try to go back door and slash.”