The Boston Celtics kept their composure while the Charlotte Hornets lost control.
Grant Williams and Miles Bridges were ejected in the final minutes of the game, and LaMelo Ball received a flagrant-1 foul, which helped the defending champion Celtics secure a 124-109 victory on Friday night.
Williams was thrown out after it was judged that he aggressively ran into former teammate Jayson Tatum during a collision near half court. Tatum looked upset as he got up but then walked toward the foul line while officials reviewed the incident.
Williams’ foul led to boos from many Celtics fans and could lead to a suspension from the league.
“At review, we saw that he accelerated his speed prior to the contact, and so he makes significant contact with the dribbler,” referee James Williams explained to a pool reporter.
“The acceleration is considered wind-up, the impact was significant, potential for injury, so this was determined to be unnecessary and excessive, which gets us to a flagrant foul penalty 2. Again, by rule, that is an automatic ejection from the game.”
Boston’s Jaylen Brown seemed upset about the foul, shouting something toward Williams and the Hornets’ bench.
Williams stated there was “no malicious intent” and that he was just trying to make a play on the ball during the transition when he bumped into Tatum. He explained that he reached to knock the ball away as Tatum was passing, which he believed made the incident look worse than it actually was.
“J.T. is one of my closest friends in the league,” said Williams, who played with Tatum from 2019 to 2023. “There was no intentionally trying to harm him in any way. … I don’t think anybody believed it was malicious intent by any means because you don’t see any of those (Celtics) guys running up to me.”
Tatum, who scored the most points in the game with 32, chose not to talk to the media afterward.
Less than a minute after Williams was ejected, Ball received a flagrant foul for kicking his leg out while Tatum was attempting a 3-pointer. Officials decided that Ball closed out in a “reckless nature” that could have hurt Tatum. Ball fouled out because of this play.
In the final minute, Bridges was also ejected after he hit the ball into the stands. “We can’t let our emotions get the best of us,” Bridges said.
Both coaches received technical fouls during what Celtics coach Joe Mazzulla described as a physical game. He did not blame Williams directly for the incidents.
“I’m glad that (Tatum) is fine,” Mazzulla said. “What I liked the most is that he jumped right up and didn’t lay around. It didn’t faze him. He got right up, went to the free throw line, and did his business.”
Mazzulla expressed that he appreciated the calmness his team showed at the end of the game.
First-year Hornets coach Charles Lee, who was an assistant to Mazzulla on last season’s championship team, said this game will serve as a lesson for his players about the importance of staying composed.
“We have to realize the importance and the emotional maturity it takes to win a close game like this,” Lee said. “We really just want them to focus on what you can control.
All those things that are outside of our grasp and outside of our control, we’ve got to let those distractions go and focus on stuff that’s going to help us build winning habits.” The teams will face each other again on Saturday night in Charlotte.
