Celtics forward Jayson Tatum drives to the basket while being guarded by Wariors guard Stephen Curry on Thursday in Boston. Tatum scored 32 points but Boston lost, 118-112. Charles Krupa/Associated Press

The Celtics matchup against the Warriors on Wednesday night at TD Garden was billed as a must-see revenge game between Jayson Tatum and Steve Kerr.

Neither of the two parties involved said they viewed it as such.

Before the game, Kerr said he “didn’t enjoy” giving Tatum the second-fewest minutes of any American player at the Summer Olympics, but he doesn’t regret that decision and he rarely thinks about the controversy it sparked. (Fans proceeded to loudly boo him during pregame introductions.)

Warriors Coach Steve Kerr was booed during introduction before facing the Celtics on Thursday night in Boston. Celtics fans were upset he didn’t give more playing time to star Jayson Tatum in this summer’s Olympics.Charles Krupa/Associated Press

Hours later, Tatum also downplayed his benchings in Paris.

He insisted the Celtics-Warriors clash that fans had circled on their calendars as soon as the schedule dropped was “just another Wednesday, another game, another opportunity to come in and try to be the best player I can be, and another day to just try to get a win.”

Really? There wasn’t any extra motivation to stick it to the guy who embarrassed you on the biggest stage in sports?

“That’s part of this job,” the Celtics star said after he scored 32 points in a 118-112 loss to Kerr’s Warriors. “That’s what I’ve been dealing with my entire career. People want me to be louder, people want me to be meaner, whatever. One thing about Jayson is I’m always going to do what the (expletive) I want to do and approach things how I want to approach them. And how I feel is sincere to who I am as a person.

“Not that it comes from a bad place; sometimes it comes from a good place. People react differently, and it’s easy to say if they were in my shoes, what they would do. So I appreciate when it comes from a good place. But like I said, I’m always going to react, respond and approach things the way I want to.”

There were plenty who wanted Tatum to use his Olympic slights as motivation. He told reporters after the gold-medal game that friends were telling him, “Make sure this fuels you.” Celtics Coach Joe Mazzulla was, in Tatum’s words, “the happiest person in the world” after his role reduction because it gave the newly crowned NBA champion something new to strive for.

Critics have been vocal about Tatum’s public demeanor, which they say isn’t mean enough.

“I think that’s what critics, people, even myself at times, want to see from him,” Justin Tatum, Jayson’s father, said in the Netflix series “Starting 5″. “I just think that level of competitiveness is in him, but it hasn’t been unlocked yet.”

Jayson Tatum, though, said he’s not interested in changing the way he operates.

“I’m very comfortable in my own skin,” Tatum said. “I’m comfortable in the things that I’ve accomplished. I know who I am, and I’m comfortable with making my own decisions the way I want to make them and doing things the way I want to.

“When you’re younger, you’re very consumed in terms of pleasing people that you don’t know or things like that. But if I do things the way I want to do it, then I can live with the result of it in every situation. That’s where I’m at in my life.”

Added motivation or not, Tatum is off to an excellent start post-Olympics, playing MVP-caliber basketball over the first two weeks of the Celtics’ season. The 26-year-old is averaging 30.2 points through nine games.

“We played Boston about five years ago. He had 55 points against us,” Kerr told reporters postgame. “So I don’t need to hear about him taking a step. He’s been a great player for a long time.”