Kentavious Caldwell-Pope is clearly relishing his role as the villain of the Boston Celtics-Orlando Magic playoff series.
The Magic guard Caldwell-Pope was involved in another questionable moment during Wednesday’s Game 2 against the Celtics. In the second quarter, Caldwell-Pope was headed back up the floor after a missed shot by his team and ran right into Boston big man Al Horford. As a result, Horford crashed to the deck hard and then popped up quickly as if ready to confront Caldwell-Pope (but was ultimately held back by teammate Jrue Holiday and head coach Joe Mazzulla).
Here is the video of the incident.
Another angle of the play can be seen below.
Caldwell-Pope was issued a common foul on the play, but neither he nor Horford received a technical foul. The Celtics were leading 43-35 at the time and went into halftime holding a 50-47 advantage.
The two-time NBA champion Caldwell-Pope has already become extremely unpopular in Boston within just the first two games of the series. During Game 1 on Sunday, Caldwell-Pope fouled Celtics star Jayson Tatum hard, causing Tatum to fall and injure his shooting wrist (video here). As a result, Tatum did not play in Game 2 on Wednesday, marking the very first missed playoff game of his NBA career.
Caldwell-Pope addressed the Tatum play prior to Game 2, essentially declining to apologize for his actions. He obviously is not changing his style of play either and this time managed to draw the ire of the usually stoic 38-year-old Horford on Wednesday.
