Draymond Green, Jaylen Brown slam Grant Williams for dirty play

To Tatum's credit, he did not retaliate and headed to the free-throw line to make the two foul shots he received for Williams' non-basketball play. However, his teammates, specifically Jaylen Brown, were in no mood to take it easy on Williams, who spent the first four seasons of his career in a Celtics uniform. 

After the game, Brown scoffed at the notion that Williams' shoulder check was unintentional. 

"Like, what are we talking about? Y'all see the same play that I was seeing?" Brown said via ESPN. "He hit him like it was a football play. Like, Ray Lewis coming across the middle or something. It is what it is. Grant know better than that."

"I thought JT and Grant was friends... I guess not," he added.

Brown's comments were a response to Williams, who said he did not intentionally try to hurt Tatum. 

"Probably just a hard foul, definitely not intentional, not trying to hurt him by any means," Williams said via NBCS Boston's Kayla Burton. "We all know he's one of my closest friends in the league. As you see, he got up and just walked away."

Elsewhere, Warriors star Draymond Green suggested that Williams was still mad at being traded by the Celtics and missing on an opportunity to win an NBA championship. Boston traded Williams to the Mavericks in July 2023, a year before raising banner No. 18. 

Through another tweet, Green said it was "mad wild" for Williams to claim that the foul was unintentional. 

Celtics head coach Joe Mazzulla praised Tatum for handling the situation like a pro and not retaliating in the heat of the moment.

With the 124-109 rout of the Hornets, the defending champions Celtics improved to 5-1 for the season. They will again face the Hornets on Saturday before traveling to Atlanta to face the Hawks on Monday.