Grant Williams ejected for cheap shot on Jayson Tatum as Celtics beat Hornets

Grant Williams smiled as he greeted his former Boston teammates before Friday night’s game between the Celtics and Hornets.

Any postgame interactions likely weren’t as friendly.

Williams, the ex-Celtics forward, was ejected late in the fourth quarter after flooring Jayson Tatum with a shoulder-to-shoulder check while the C’s star dribbled up court. His Flagrant 2 foul was part of a late-game meltdown by Charlotte, which trailed by one with eight minutes remaining but went on to lose 124-90 at the Spectrum Center.

The game featured two ejections, two flagrant fouls and three technical fouls, including one on each head coach. The teams won’t need to wait long to settle any lingering scores, as they’ll play the second end of a back-to-back Saturday night at the same venue.

“I loved it,” Celtics coach Joe Mazzulla told reporters postgame. “It was great. It was tremendous. Physical game; the guys handled it well. Great poise, great execution. I wouldn’t have it any other way.”

Tatum led the Celtics with 32 points, 11 rebounds and three steals. He and co-star Jaylen Brown (25 points, six rebounds, five assists) went a combined 20-for-23 at the foul line, each making more free throws than the entire Hornets roster (6-for-12).

Mazzulla also appreciated Tatum’s response to Williams’ hard foul.

“I’m glad that he’s fine,” he told reporters. “What I liked most is that he jumped right up. Didn’t lay around, didn’t really faze him. Just went right up, went to the free-throw line, did his business.

“I don’t like the fact that (Williams) did it, but I’m happy he’s OK and I’m more happy with how he responded to it. Just get up, move on to the next play. And the team responded well, too, so it’s a credit to him.”

Luke Kornet and Neemias Queta held down Boston’s frontcourt in the absence of Al Horford, who sat out the game for load management purposes. Queta scored 12 points and grabbed four offensive rebounds, and Kornet blocked two shots and was a plus-16 in 24 minutes.

Hornets star LaMelo Ball scored 31 points on 12-of-25 shooting before fouling out late. Tre Mann added 23 points off the bench for Charlotte.

The Celtics started cold from 3-point range, with three quick misses by Tatum and Brown, and trailed early before getting a spark from their backcourt. Holiday and White — who finished with 14 and 17 points, respectively — combined to hit three threes in a 90-second span to ignite a 15-1 Celtics run.

Tatum took over late in the first quarter, draining a trailer three off a Sam Hauser offensive rebound and then baiting Williams into a foul on a 3-pointer as time expired. The three free throws gave Tatum 16 first-quarter points — the fourth time this season he hit double figures in the opening frame — and Boston a 40-25 lead.

The first half of the second quarter belonged to Brown, who asserted himself with several strong drives to the rim. That physicality has been Brown’s greatest asset of late, helping him remain productive amid an outside shooting slump. (He’s 1-for-21 from three over the last three games.)

Brown scored on three straight Celtics possessions, following up a drawn foul and a driving layup with a thunderous dunk in transition off a White feed. He and Tatum combined for 34 first-half points.

The Celtics also got strong early minutes from second-year pro Jordan Walsh, who sank a three on his first touch and added another less than two minutes later.

But the Hornets — whose first-year head coach, Charles Lee, was Joe Mazzulla’s top assistant last season — hung around while employing a very Celtics-esque approach. Down 15 midway through the second quarter, Charlotte cut Boston’s lead to four by racking up 3-pointers.

Lee’s squad took and made more threes than the Celtics in the first half, and eight different Hornets players hit at least one in the second quarter alone. Charlotte trailed 71-67 at halftime.

That strategy wasn’t especially surprising given how the Hornets have played in the opening weeks of Lee’s coaching tenure. They entered Friday ranked fourth in the NBA in 3-point attempts per game, third in 3-point makes and sixth in 3-point shooting percentage. (The Celtics were first, first and second in those categories.)

In the third quarter, the Celtics stretched their lead back to double digits with a 10-3 run that featured seven Tatum points. Kornet helped fuel that flurry by assisting on a White three, pulling down a rebound and denying Ball at the rim. Tatum hit his third triple of the game on the ensuing possession.

But again, Charlotte rallied.

Mann, the NBA leader in bench scoring entering Friday (one point ahead of Boston’s Payton Pritchard), scored eight points in the final five minutes of the third quarter, including one bucket that capped prolonged Hornets possession. Charlotte grabbed four consecutive offensive rebounds before Mann’s make — a sequence that surely infuriated Mazzulla.

Speaking of, the Celtics coach was hit with a technical foul four minutes into the fourth quarter for arguing an illegal screen call against Queta. It was the angriest sideline outburst of the young season for Mazzulla, who was held back by assistant Tony Dobbins as he lambasted referee James Williams.

But the tech proved to be a turning point in Boston’s favor. Ball, who was red hot to start the fourth, missed the technical free throw that would have tied the game at 100-100, and the Celtics proceeded to score 11 of the next 13 points. Lee also was T’d up during that stretch.

A brief Hornets response cut Boston’s lead to six, but the Celtics pulled away with a Holiday three followed by a slew of late-game free throws. Williams was ejected for his shoulder check on Tatum, Ball was assessed a Flagrant 1 for a dangerous closeout on Tatum and Miles Bridges was tossed in the final minute for punching the ball.

The Celtics improved to 5-1 with the win, rebounding from Wednesday night’s overtime loss to the Indiana Pacers.

“They outshot us from three, but we got to the free-throw line, and I thought we just made winning plays,” Mazzulla told reporters. “This season’s about finding ways to win and building identities, and I thought tonight was a step in that direction.”