Caleb Martin fouled Jayson Tatum hard in the last minute of Game 1 between the Celtics and the Heat on Sunday. Jaylen Brown was the first player to talk to Martin about it.

Martin was quickly slammed into by Brown and Kristaps Porzingis. Brown said he wanted to make sure nothing shady would happen because the Heat have a reputation for using iffy strategies during games.

Brown said, “I just told him to keep an eye on that and make sure that basketball plays are going on out there.”

Brown said, “We know they like to play hard and rough, but there’s a line, so we’re just making sure we’re not hurting the game.” “All I did was tell him to watch it. From what I saw at the time, you couldn’t tell all the parts apart, but that’s all I did.”

For the Celtics’ sake, Tatum wasn’t hurt during the play. Tatum said he felt fine after the game, and Tatum told his coach, Joe Mazzulla, that he did fine in practice on Tuesday.

Because Brown wasn’t sure at the time if it was a dirty play or not, he chose to watch out for Tatum anyway.

Brown said, “I saw a guy fall, and I’ve got my guy’s back 10 times out of 10.” “In the heat of the moment, it was hard to tell what was going on, but something about it seemed off, so I said something.” The play looked like it was just basketball and wasn’t meant to be, so we kept going. “JT gets up, walks to the other side, and makes two free throws.”

Brown said that the Celtics are more accepting of play that is rough and tumble than at any other time in his time on the team.

“That’s the point, do you understand?” Brown told them. “You have to put up with the shenanigans, but we’re not going for anything extra this season. Just act like a boss. We’re doing our jobs and looking out for each other.

Brown said that Tatum and he didn’t have much to talk about after the play. It’s normal for Miami to play that rough. In the playoffs, the Celtics have played Miami four times in the last five years, so they know how to handle it. Now it’s up to them how to deal with it.

“Every game’s a fight.” Brown told them, “You have to win both the game and the fight.” “Both are important, and we take pride in being the smarter team and the team that gets the job done on the floor and can set the tone physically and not back down.”