Once Jayson Tatum started drawing contact in Friday night’s matchup against the Chicago Bulls, he couldn’t stop. Even after the game was over.

After making a career-high 20 trips to the free-throw line in a 123-119 Celtics win, Tatum took a trip to the postgame podium inside TD Garden where he was asked right off the bat about his ability to find new ways of drawing contact against opponents. Before he could answer, the star wing found yet another way, as a cloth backdrop banner unexpectedly fell on his head.

Unscathed, Tatum smiled off the bizarre incident – ​​no harm, no foul in this case – and went on to answer the question as smoothly as he would knock down a pair of free throws.

“The older I get, I think the more my body develops, the more I’m able to take contact,” he said amid the ironic moment. “Also, just reading when we’re in the bonus, time, and situation in the game, I think I’ve gotten a lot better at that over the years.”

Tatum drew 10 fouls against Chicago and knocked down 17 of his 20 attempts from the charity stripe. Three of those makes came during the final 40 seconds, as his 36-point effort helped to hold off the Bulls despite DeMar DeRozan’s 46 points and 22 trips to the line.

“He was really aggressive tonight, and it’s just great to see whenever he’s able to get that many free throws,” Al Horford said of Tatum, who also used his aggressiveness to dish out a game-high six assists. “Number one, he’s doing something right; number two he’s being very aggressive attacking the basket. I felt like he did a really good job of when to go seek the foul and when to kick the ball out. His decision-making was very good.”

That may be an understatement, considering how there was only one Tatum turnover amid all of his scoring and assisting.

Horford says that’s all part of his continuing development.

“I just see him very confident,” said the veteran big man. “I feel like he knows himself more and more. That’s the feeling that I get. He knows when he’s going to go score, when he’s got to pass, making reads There’s a lot going on at times. He has that ability to just pick it up and make adjustments on the fly.”

Drawing contact consistently seems to be one of the biggest adjustments Tatum has made from last season to this season. His free-throw attempts per game are up from a career-high of 6.2 to a new career-high of 8.6. And he’s converting those attempts at a career-best 89.9 percent rate.

Tatum hopes that his continued growth is something that inspires his teammates, as well.

“I’m trying to get better in every aspect,” he said. “Just trying to be better than I was last season and impacted the game all over, offensively and on the defensive end. I think that’s contagious throughout the whole team.”

Though, his ability to draw contact might be becoming too contagious – to the point where it’s following him off the court to the podium.