Horford's Comments on KCP-Tatum Foul 'Mean Nothing,' Magic Say

BOSTON – With 8:28 to play in the fourth quarter of Sunday's Game 1, Boston Celtics superstar Jayson Tatum received a pass from Jrue Holiday after coming around an off-ball screen from Al Horford, turned and saw a clear lane to the basket.

Orlando Magic veteran guard Kentavious Caldwell-Pope, who was defending Boston's Derrick White in the weak side corner, rotated over as the low man and jumped to contest Tatum at the summit.

Caldwell-Pope missed the ball and instead made contact with Tatum's arm. The Magic defender was whistled for a personal foul, and Tatum went crashing hard to the deck. Grabbing his wrist, he did not immediately pop back to his feet.

Tatum has since been diagnosed with a right distal radius bone bruise in his wrist. He is listed as doubtful for Wednesday's Game 2, which tips off at 7 p.m. on TNT.

An X-ray on Tatum's injured wrist came back clean, he said Sunday evening. ESPN first reported that Tatum underwent an MRI and was diagnosed with a bone bruise on Tuesday.

After the incident, Horford and the Magic bench – namely Caldwell-Pope and center Wendell Carter Jr. – exchanged words before heading back to their respective benches. Caldwell-Pope was assessed a Flagrant 1 foul following an official review.

"I didn't see the Flagrant," Magic coach Jamahl Mosley said of the foul at Wednesday morning's shootaround. "I think two guys were going for the block, and the fall was probably what set it off more than anything."

If you're wondering why Mosley was being asked about the foul three days after the fact and on the morning of the next game in the series, it came after Horford made public comments to Celtics reporters at Tuesday's practice about the foul on Tatum.

"There was something extra," Horford said. "There was a lot –– it was the second or third time that especially KCP went at him in that way."

Holiday told Boston reporters he didn't think of the play as anything but a hard foul, and that was the overwhelming sentiment that many around the Magic expressed Wednesday morning.

"It's playoff basketball, and I don't think [the foul] warranted what it was," Mosley said. "Understanding there's a reason why we are where we are defensively, becuase we want to make sure we're being physical, disrupting, but doing it the right way, doing it without fouling."

"Not at all," Magic guard Cory Joseph told Magic on SI when asked if there was any truth to Horford's comments. "I watched the play a couple of times. Obviously, Al is respected and he's played for a long time in this league ... It just seemed like a playoff foul to me. He went for the ball, missed the ball, Jayson was pretty high up [and he] got his arm. He didn't come across his face or anything. I don't think he did anything extra. That's in the past. We're not worried about that. We're moving on to this game, focused on tonight."

"I really don't care," Magic guard Cole Anthony told reporters Wednesday of Horford's comments. "That stuff really means nothing to me. At the end of the day, if anything, I look at it like a positive because now we've got them complaining."

At Tuesday's practice, the Magic said playing less physical in the second half was an attributing factor to their Game 1 loss. Jonathan Isaac said he felt Orlando is even taken aback at how much physicality has been permitted by officials throughout these playoffs.

Both Joseph and Anthony had similar thoughts.

"I'm watching all the games – I think all the games are pretty physical," he said. "I don't think ours was any different [Sunday], and I don't expect it to be any different. Nobody's out there trying to hurt anybody. Nobody wants anybody to be hurt. We're just all playing hard, physical basketball."

"We've just got to keep our same level of physicality and at the same time know, nobody's trying to take anybody out and hurt anybody," Anthony said. "We all play this game. We all play this game the right way.

"We're going to keep mucking it up. You're just giving us good feedback."