The Boston Celtics defeated the Chicago Bulls in their NBA In-Season tournament matchup. However, Celtics superstar Jayson Tatum was not impressed with the way they won the game. In the fourth quarter, Boston had a 32-point lead, which often means that they have won the game. But Tatum was still on court and he had no idea why.
The Celtics had a very smart ploy against the Bulls where they intentionally fouled Andre Drummond to send him to take free throws. Drummond is one of the worst free throw shooters in the league. He only makes 59.1% of his free throws.
Tatum recently spoke on the matter in Andre Iguodala’s podcast “Point Forward” where he expressed his thoughts regarding the fourth quarter. He failed to understand why he was on court despite the Celitcs holding out a massive 30-point lead. Normally, he would be on the bench while some youngster would be given much-needed game time.
“We were ahead in the game, I think I tapped Torry Craig,” Tatum said. “I was like ‘Yo bro like, I don’t really wanna be out here right now.’ Coz we were up 30 going into the fourth. If it was a Wednesday, I would have been sitting on the bench. The younger guys would’ve gotten in. It just didn’t feel right.”
Eventually, the Celtics defeated the Chicago Bulls 124-97 on Tuesday. But, they constantly fouled Drummond with the strategy of maintaining the point differential, which was a crucial factor for their qualification into the quarter-finals of the In-season tournament.
The strategy worked in their favour as they played against the second-seeded Indiana Pacers but Chicago Bulls coach Billy Donovan was not happy about the intentional fouling of Andre Drummond. Later, Celtics coach Joe Mazzulla extended his apologies to Donovan and also to Drummond for the approach used by his team during this game.
However, the Celtics lost the quarter-finals of the NBA In-Season tournament to the Pacers 122-112 despite Tatum’s heroics of 32 points, 12 rebounds and six assists. It was down to Tyrese Haliburton’s exceptional triple-double of 26 points, 10 rebounds and 13 assists which helped the Pacers win the clash.
