It has been a frustrating series for the Boston Celtics and star forward Jayson Tatum in their Eastern Conference Finals against the Miami Heat. Things didn’t get much better to start Game 5 on Thursday night after he received a questionable technical foul.
The Celtics have their back up against the wall trailing 3-1 in the series. Tensions are very high in Boston, which may have led to Tatum making his feelings known about a missed call early in the game.
He scored his second basket of the game early in the first quarter on a dunk. However, Tatum was upset that he didn’t get a foul call on top of the dunk after receiving some contact from both Heat point guard Kyle Lowry and forward Kevin Love.
No foul was called, and Tatum made a gesture toward the referee on the baseline after landing from the dunk. This instantly led to him being called for a technical foul. He then continued to talk to the ref and protest the call.
Plenty of NBA players complain to the officials about calls and don’t receive a technical. Most around the NBA world thought that it was a pretty soft call in a must-win game for Boston.
The Celtics’ home crowd at the TD Garden certainly let the refs hear their displeasure with the call. They broke out into a “refs you suck” chant that was very noticeable.
Fortunately, this call didn’t seem to have much of an impact on the Celtics’ play in the first half. They took a 17-point lead into halftime thanks to an impressive effort on the defensive end.
[Bleacher Report on Twitter] Photo Credit: TNT
About Reice Shipley
Reice Shipley is a staff writer for Comeback Media that graduated from Ithaca College with a degree in Sports Media. He previously worked at Barrett Sports Media and is a fan of all things Syracuse sports.