With two off days between Games 1 and 2 of the Celtics’ first-round playoff series against the Heat, most of the discourse has had little to do with the matchups on the hardwood.
The primary topic of conversation has been Caleb Martin’s hard foul in the final minute of the Celtics’ Game 1 victory that could have injured Jayson Tatum.
A small scrum broke out after Martin undercut Tatum while the star forward was jumping to corral a rebound.
Tatum hit the floor hard but quickly got to his feet and made his way to the other end of the court for free throws as Jaylen Brown and his teammates jawed with Martin.
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Tatum stressed that he was not injured on the play, with Celtics coach Joe Mazzulla adding that Tatum was a full participant during Tuesday’s practice.
Still, the timing of Martin’s foul — with the Celtics up 16 with 59.4 seconds on the clock — and the potential consequences for Tatum had some crying foul after the Celtics’ 114-94 win.
“To me, it’s a dirty play,” former Celtics forward and current NBC Sports Boston analyst Brian Scalabrine said. “I think anybody that looks at that, I think Martin should get suspended for that. That’s a dirty play. You can’t do that.
“The NBA is about the star players. The idea of winning an NBA championship is your star players have to stay healthy. And a guy goes up, and you just ram into him? That ain’t basketball.”
Speaking after Miami’s practice Tuesday at TD Garden, Martin pushed back against the narrative that he intended to injure Tatum.
“Anybody I mean, anybody who knows me, I don’t feel the need to try to take out guys in order to be somebody,” Martin said. “The first thing I did was turn around and check if he was OK. If I was trying to take someone out, I’d just walk away.
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“That’s not who I am. It’s the playoffs. Hard fouls happen all the time, and if the roles were switched, I don’t think anybody would be calling it a code red.”
Martin added that he felt he was pushed into Tatum, getting shoved by Celtics guard Jrue Holiday.
“If anybody watched it, I clearly got pushed into him,” Martin said. “I was going for a putback dunk and the push changed the trajectory.
“This stuff just happens. Guys are playing full speed and things happen. I never try to hurt somebody.”
Heat coach Erik Spoelstra also took umbrage with the talk about Martin’s foul, noting that the play fell in line with the expected physicality that comes with postseason basketball.
“I get it, everybody gets emotional,” Spoelstra said. “If you ask fans on one side how they view the play, you ask fans on our side how they view the play and you’re going to get two totally different viewpoints on that. That’s the playoffs.
“That’s the fun part also for fan bases. It was an irrational assessment on our view of what actually happened, and the players are fine. All the outside noise or anything like that is not going to decide this series or the game.
“This is good, clean, tough playoff basketball and it always has been with Boston and us. It’s not going over the top. The league doesn’t need to look anything more on either side. This is just tough, competitive basketball. This is what everybody wants.”
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Martin expects to hear plenty from the TD Garden crowd Wednesday in Game 2.
“I wasn’t too surprised, honestly,” Martin said of the criticism. “It’s that time of year where things get amplified and everybody tries to have a say in something.
“It’s that time of year where anything is done wrong or hard fouls happen to certain people, they are going to be made out like you are trying to take guys out, stuff like that. That’s what comes with this time of year, so I’m not tripping.”
Conor Ryan can be reached at conor.ryan@globe.com.