Joe Mazzulla rips ‘ridiculous’ missed foul against Jayson Tatum in Celtics win

Joe Mazzulla found it “ridiculous” that Giannis Antetokounmpo was not called for a foul on a play that nearly injured Jayson Tatum.

During the third quarter of the Celtics’ 113-107 victory over the Bucks on Sunday, Antetokounmpo moved his foot into Tatum’s landing zone on a 3-point attempt. Tatum landed on the Milwaukee star’s sneaker and turned his ankle.

Tatum remained in the game — and scored 31 points as Boston rallied from a 17-point deficit to win — but Mazzulla took the officials to task during his postgame news conference.

“That’s ridiculous,” the Celtics head coach told reporters. “You can’t miss that. You can’t miss that. … That’s something that’s got to be (called) because it could have hurt him. He’s hurt an ankle before. That could have got him (this) time. But credit to him for handling it the right way.”

Tatum also voiced his displeasure over the no-call on social media, writing on X: “smdh (face-palm emoji) some calls you just not supposed to miss.” He called it “frustrating” when speaking with reporters postgame.

“There are certain calls you can’t miss,” Tatum said, via MassLive.com. “Your job is to protect the guys on the court, protect the shooter. That’s something I could have been out for six weeks or whatever. For it to be a no-call, let alone they didn’t even get to review it or look at it, right?”

Mazzulla praised Tatum for keeping his composure. He scored 23 of his 31 points in the second half, adding 12 rebounds and six assists and going 13-for-15 from the free-throw line.

“He didn’t let it impact the rest of the game on either end of the floor,” Mazzulla told reporters. “The refs did a great job, they knew that they missed it and anytime you can have that relationship with them and they did it, you just move on.”

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