Jayson Tatum avoided injury Sunday during his tumble on the TD Garden parquet.

The Celtics star landed on his wrist after a hard foul from Magic guard Kentavious Caldwell-Pope in Game 1 of the teams’ first-round playoff series. He remained down on the court for an extended period and was briefly examined on the Boston bench, but he remained in the game, which the Celtics went on to win 103-86.

Tatum said an X-ray on his wrist came back “clean” and “good.” He downplayed the scare during his postgame news conference.

“It’s all right,” Tatum said. “I just fell on it, landed on it. … It was throbbing for a second then kind of went away.”

Caldwell-Pope, who grabbed Tatum’s right elbow while the latter was elevating for a dunk, was assessed a Flagrant 1 foul on the play. Players from both teams exchanged words while Tatum was wincing on the floor.

“Hard foul,” Celtics guard Jrue Holiday said. “I mean, playoff basketball, (Orlando is a) 7 seed that’s gonna come out and fight and be physical. Just a hard foul.”

Tatum endured a rough shooting night (8-for-22 from the field, 1-for-8 from 3-point range, 0-for-4 from the foul line) but was highly active on the glass, leading all players with 14 rebounds to go along with his 17 points, four assists, one steal and one block. The Celtics outscored the Magic by a game-best 23 points during his 40 minutes.

“Obviously, he probably didn’t play the efficient offensive game that he would have liked, but I thought his poise, you couldn’t tell that,” Celtics head coach Joe Mazzulla said. “That never got in the way of his defense and his physicality and his rebounding. That’s the most important thing. He’s going to score, he’s going to put us in position to be successful, but you’ve got to answer the call defensively, physicality-wise. I thought he did that, especially rebounding in the second half.”

Holiday turns the tide

Though his final stat line was unremarkable for a starting guard (nine points, five assists, three rebounds, three steals, three turnovers), Holiday was one of the most important players on the floor for Boston in its series-opening win.

The 34-year-old steered the Celtics at both ends in a dominant third quarter, during which they turned a one-point halftime deficit into a 17-point lead. Boston scored 30 points in the frame, and 22 of them came on baskets Holiday either scored (by going 3-for-3 from 3-point range) or assisted on. Defensively, Holiday grabbed two steals and helped limit Orlando to 18 points in the frame.

“That’s the Jrue I love, you know what I mean?” Jaylen Brown said. “That’s the Jrue I remember competing against. Regular season is different from the playoffs. I know sometimes y’all forget that and think like, it’s the regular season, but you can see his intensity level is a lot different. You can see the physicality is a lot different, so we just take it one game at a time. But Jrue, he loves the environment just as much as I do. You could see him picking up guys and blowing through screens and just making plays. When we get that Jrue, it’s a good sign for us.

Mazzulla said Holiday, who sacrifices personal statistics to be the glue of Boston’s star-studded roster, “put the team on his back from that passion and emotion standpoint.”

“His defense led to the offense,” the coach said. “He was able to get some assists there from a steal, or from a rebound, or a deflection, and then go out and threw a transition to Payton (Pritchard), layup there. So when he’s aggressive for us, we’re a different team, and it takes everybody to do that. Tonight, it started from his defense, and he changed it for us.”

Microwave Pritchard

With Tatum, Brown and Kristaps Porzingis shooting a combined 34.1% and 1-for-12 from deep, the Celtics relied on their guards to carry much of the scoring load. Derrick White led that charge with 30 points and seven 3-pointers, and Pritchard contributed a hyper-efficient 6-for-8 showing off the bench, piling up 19 points in his first 18 minutes of floor time.

“Payton being Payton,” Holiday said. “I think when he first came out he had a quick 11 points (in five minutes) — crazy. I think just Payton being Payton, taking the opportunity. Payton is also a gamer, as everybody here sees. Any opportunity he gets to put the ball in the basket, he does it. But what makes him special is what he does on the defensive end: picking up anybody full-court, just being a dog, hounding whoever is in front of him.”

Mazzulla focused on the latter when praising the Celtics’ second-unit standout.

“I thought he was just as good defensively as he was offensively,” he said.

Shortly after the game concluded, Pritchard was announced as one of three finalists for NBA Sixth Man of the Year — an award he’s widely expected to win after leading the league in bench scoring during the regular season. Cleveland’s Ty Jerome and Detroit’s Malik Beasley were the other finalists.

“That’s another dog, you know what I mean?” Brown said. “He’s been showing that all year with his mentality and his mindset. … Payton, his mentality has been like that all season long, so when he gets in the game, it’s no different. Today was an example of what he’s been doing all season long.”

Brown’s knee feeling good

After a knee injury sidelined him for the Celtics’ final three regular-season games and eight of their last 16, Brown logged 30 minutes in Sunday’s win, reaching that total for the first time since March 12. After the game, he said his oft-scrutinized right knee “felt good.”

“Just feeling it out,” he said. “To start the game, it took me a little bit to get into the game. I feel like I was watching a little bit to start. Second half, I was able to get more involved, make some plays. Have some better activities. First game, I haven’t played in a while. Looking forward to the next one and just building from here.”

Brown showed good burst on two driving layups early in the game and also swiped two first-quarter steals. He then scored 10 of his 16 points in the third quarter as Boston seized control of the game.

The 2024 NBA Finals MVP’s health was the top Celtics-related question heading into the playoffs, and Brown came out of Game 1 feeling encouraged.

“I’m feeling a lot better,” he said. “I’m feeling a lot better, moving a lot better. So I think that’s great. I think some people have definitely been praying for me over the last couple weeks or whatever, and I’m feeling a lot better. Just take it one day at a time. Tonight, we got the win, but we’ve got to look forward to playing better. This Magic team, this Orlando team, is not going to go away.”

Off the rim

Mazzulla, a devout Catholic, was asked about playing Game 1 on Easter Sunday. “I mean, I cherish it,” the Celtics coach replied. “I think it’s become part of our family and who we are. I don’t think there’s anything better than Easter and the Celtics. You get Christmas, Easter and the Celtics. What’s better than that?” … Tatum was not among the three finalists for NBA MVP. Those were Oklahoma City’s Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, Denver’s Nikola Jokic and Milwaukee’s Giannis Antetokounmpo.