The Boston Celtics might have opened up their 2025 title defense in a dominant fashion, but there’s one problem they are currently dealing with.
Despite picking up an emphatic 103-86 victory over the Orlando Magic, the reigning champions Boston Celtics are working through an injury suffered to Jayson Tatum.
While soaring for a dunk, Tatum was tightly contested by the Magic and took a hard fall, injuring his right wrist during the process.
While the Celtics superstar has shrugged off the pessimism around the injury following X-ray results, bruising means he is still at risk of missing Game 2.
Al Horford hurls shot at Orlando Magic star
Discussing Tatum’s injury, teammate Al Horford believes that the Magic went a little too far.
During the play, it was Kentavious Caldwell-Pope and Wendell Carter Jr. who went over and tried to stop Tatum from dunking.
Caldwell-Pope actually grabbed the arms of Tatum in mid-air, resulting for the Boston forward to land awkwardly.
Horford particularly didn’t like how the play went because of Caldwell-Pope, who was eventually assessed by the officials with a flagrant foul 1.
“Yes. There was something extra there, Horford said in his media availability during the Celtics’ team practice.
“It was about the second or third time especially KCP went at him in that way,” he added.
The seasoned Boston center acknowledged that physicality and chippy plays will always be there within the intense competition of the Playoffs.
“I’m not sure what goes into [plays like that],” Horford said. “Only thing I would say is that it is the playoffs, the game is going to be more physical, more intense, those plays are probably going to happen more often than not.
“It just reminds you of the intensity that we are playing with, we are all competing, we are playing hard, there is a level to it. In the regular season you probably don’t see it as consistent, in the playoff there’s a lot of it.”
Payton Pritchard unfazed by the physicality sending by the Magic
Horford has plenty of reasons to be disgruntled about the reason behind Tatum’s injury.
Heading to Game 2 on April 23, Tatum is listed as doubtful to play due to a bone bruise in his right wrist.
For being the clear underdogs in this series after surviving the Play-In Tournament, the Magic are doing whatever way they can to pull an upset behind Paolo Banchero and Franz Wagner.
And even if Orlando is doing it on a physical and aggressive manner, Payton Pritchard stands unfazed.
“I don’t feel intimidated. Like I grew up playing physical basketball in the backyard,” Pritchard said.
“Obviously, they fouled [Tatum] hard, and then he had a little fall, but it’s not gonna stop us from what we’re trying to achieve. It’s not gonna knock us off our path.”
He added: “They can try it, see if it works. We’ll go right into the game and do what we do.”
