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Celtics, Grant Williams Give Conflicting Perspectives on Hornets Forward's Flagrant 2

Boston forward Jayson Tatum was knocked to the ground during Friday evening's contest.

Patrick Andres

Jayson Tatum before Friday's Celtics-Hornets contest.
Jayson Tatum before Friday's Celtics-Hornets contest. / Jim Dedmon-Imagn Images
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Friday's game between the Boston Celtics and Charlotte Hornets was a chippy one, culminating in Hornets forward Grant Williams bowling over Celtics forward (and former teammate) Jayson Tatum and receiving a Flagrant 2 foul.

Though Tatum rose from the Spectrum Center floor unscathed, the play annoyed his Boston teammates—and they made no secret of their feelings after the game.

"That wasn't a basketball play. Grant knows better than that," forward Jaylen Brown said via writer John Karalis. "There's no place in the game for that. I thought JT and Grant were friends. I guess not."

"He's just too damn big to be doing stuff like that," guard Derrick White added via Karalis; though Tatum is two inches taller than Williams, the latter has nearly 30 pounds on the former.

Williams, for his part, calmly defended his actions to NBC Sports Boston's Kayla Burton.

"I think it's moreso he didn't see me before anything else. I definitely make contact with the body before I reach," Williams said. "Definitely not intentional. Not trying to hurt him by any means."

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Patrick Andres
PATRICK ANDRES

Patrick Andres is a staff writer on the Breaking and Trending News team at Sports Illustrated. He joined SI in December 2022, having worked for The Blade, Athlon Sports, Fear the Sword and Diamond Digest. Andres has covered everything from zero-attendance Big Ten basketball to a seven-overtime college football game. He is a graduate of Northwestern University's Medill School of Journalism with a double major in history .

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