Jayson Tatum and the Boston Celtics have been playing some uninspiring basketball as of late. Thus, it's not too difficult to understand why, on Wednesday night, the Celtics had no time for such petty antics from Minnesota Timberwolves center Rudy Gobert, who saw it fit to swing his feet recklessly towards the vicinity of Derrick White after hammering down an uncontested jam.

Nevertheless, Tatum had his teammate's back. After nailing the technical free throw from Gobert's wild attempt at a kick, the Celtics star made sure to repay Gobert's purported disrespect with some of his own. Tatum proceeded to throw down a nasty poster slam right down Gobert's throat before crashing towards the floor for a mean and-one finish that ended up drawing a flagrant 1 foul call on the Timberwolves center.

After the game, Jayson Tatum sounded off on his retaliatory act towards what he perceived to be a disrespectful play towards his Celtics teammate.

“I definitely didn't appreciate him doing that to D-White. They called a tech, whatever. But you know, attacking the rim especially when he's down there, you can't lay it up. He's gonna block that s–t. Got to put pressure on the refs to call the foul and attack the rim,” Tatum said, per NBC Sports Boston.

The Celtics star may have paid a price by going up fearlessly against Rudy Gobert, but he appears to be alright following a hard crash.

“I came down, fell right on my hip. Pretty sore. Nothing crazy. Keep icing it, things like that,” Tatum added.

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It's quite unclear if the Timberwolves center's flailing feet was a sign of intentional disrespect towards Derrick White. Perhaps Gobert just wanted to show him up after the Celtics guard took a wild swipe towards Gobert's arms a few seconds prior. Nevertheless, Gobert lost all plausible deniability when he flexed his arms following the play.

At the end of the day, it was the Celtics that had the last laugh. They ended up taking home a 104-102 victory, thanks in large part to Jaylen Brown's 35 points. Perhaps this should help them regain the swagger they've been missing over the past weeks.