Jayson Tatum delighted the TD Garden crowd on Monday night, though he encountered a dispute with an official before the game’s conclusion. The Boston Celtics luminary received a foul for an alleged infraction against New York Knicks guard Immanuel Quickley, occurring with 4:47 left in the fourth quarter.

Expressing his disagreement with the call, Tatum responded with a boisterous clap and a yell—a fervent reaction that appeared typical for the competitive atmosphere of the final quarter. Nevertheless, Referee Gediminas Petraitis perceived the situation differently and promptly assessed Tatum with a technical foul. (You can view the sequence here.) When questioned about the incident post-game, Tatum vehemently asserted that he had committed no wrongdoing

“I shouldn’t have got the tech,” Tatum said, as seen in the video player above. “I mean, it’s tough. It’s an emotional game, right? The fans can see it, everybody watching can see it, it’s hard to play the game without emotions.

“I understand there is a fine line and a balance, but fourth quarter, we playing defense and I screamed nothing crazy, not even directing it towards anybody. And then for the ref on the other side to come and give me that tech, I don’t agree with that. It wasn’t right. But can’t go back and change it now.”

“Fortuitously for Boston, Tatum’s technical foul didn’t prove detrimental to the Celtics. On the contrary, the NBA MVP contender seemingly channeled his frustration into motivation, sinking three crucial 3-pointers in the last four minutes to secure a 114-98 triumph for Boston.”

“I mean, yeah, I was mad, because I thought I didn’t deserve that tech at all,” Tatum said. “I’ve gotten a lot of techs in my career I know that I deserve. That wasn’t one of them.”

Tatum, recognizing his tendency to expend excessive energy disputing calls with officials in the past, has consciously worked on not allowing missed calls to affect his performance. While the technical foul wasn’t an ideal development, Celtics fans can find encouragement in Tatum’s ability to maintain focus both before and after the incident. He showcased his resilience by scoring 17 of his game-high 35 points in the fourth quarter, connecting on 6 of 8 shots (4 of 5 from 3-point range) in the final 12 minutes.

Looking ahead, Boston will face the 8-1 Philadelphia 76ers on Wednesday night at 7:30 p.m. ET on NBC Sports Boston.