Miami Heat forward Caleb Martin has come under fire after a play with about a minute left in the fourth quarter in which he collided with Boston Celtics star Jayson Tatum, causing him to fall awkwardly. Fans and some spectators immediately called it a “dirty” play intended to take out the player, prompting Martin, Heat head coach Erik Spoelstra, and Bam Adebayo to respond before Tuesday’s practice.
somebody. The first thing I did was turn around and see whether he was okay. If I was trying to take someone out, I would have simply walked away. “That is not who I am.”
“It’s the playoffs. Hard fouls happen all the time,” Martin continued. “If the roles were switched, I don’t think anybody would have been calling it a Code Red. That just happened. And if anybody watched it, I clearly got pushed into him (by Celtics guard Jrue Holiday). I was going for a putback dunk and the push changed the trajectory. That stuff just happens. Guys are playing full speed and things happen. I’d never try to hurt somebody.”
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Martin argues that the foul was unintentional, and that the replay clearly shows that he was shoved by Jrue Holiday and was unable to halt his momentum, resulting in the collision. Despite all of the talk about the Heat’s deceptive play, Spoelstra told the reporters that “it was an irrational assessment” and that “this is good, clean, tough, physical playoff basketball.”
“I don’t even think it’s worth addressing. I get it, everybody gets emotional,” Spoelstra said. “You ask fans on one side how they view the play, you ask fans on our side how they view the play, you’re gonna get two totally different viewpoints on that. That’s the playoffs. You know, that’s the fun part also for fan bases. It was an irrational assessment on our view of what actually happened and the players are fine. None of that has been, all the outside noise or anything like that, it’s not going to decide the series or the game.”
“This is good, clean, tough, physical playoff basketball and always has been with Boston and us,” Spoelstra continued. “It’s not going over the top. The league doesn’t need to look into anything more on either side, put extra eyes on it. This is just tough, competitive basketball. This is what what everybody wants, is what the fans want, the players want teams one, and even the league. They want this level of competition that they’re seeing.”
Heat star not surprised by the reaction the collision is getting
When it comes to Martin, he is not surprised by the reception the play has received, with some claiming that he had malicious intent in killing Tatum. Martin later stated, as Spoelstra did prior to Tuesday morning’s Heat practice, that “it’s just that time of year.”
“I wasn’t too surprised,” Martin said. “It’s that time of year where things get amplified and everybody likes to try to have a say in something. It’s just that time of year. And anything that’s done wrong or hard fouls happen to certain people, they’re going to be, ‘maybe that was to try to take guys out,’ stuff like that. That’s just what comes with this time of year.”
Another player that shared their thoughts on the subject was the Heat’s captain, Bam Adebayo, who is not only Martin’s teammate but also a close friend of Tatum. He defended Martin, claiming that he was pushed into the Celtics star and that the two “hashed it out” to ensure they were on the same page.
“I don’t know if everybody watched it, but one of their players pushed him into Jayson,” Adebayo was quoted as saying. “Like I said, JT and Caleb worked it out, and we moved on along with everyone else. It doesn’t matter what they say as long as it stays inside these boundaries.
There’s no doubt that this was the most heated takeaway from the game for fans, but the Heat were completely demolished by Boston in Game 1 on Sunday afternoon. Miami hopes to keep this series close, as Game 2 is scheduled for Wednesday night at TD Garden.