Jayson Tatum is fourth in first balloting of fan voting for Eastern Conference frontcourt players

Tatum has played in the past three All-Star games and has established himself as one of the game’s premier players. But he’s in deep company in the Eastern Conference. The fans, media, and players vote on the starters and the head coaches pick the reserves. Jaylen Brown is considered a guard in All-Star voting and is fourth among Eastern guards.

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Tatum was more focused on bouncing back from Tuesday’s 150-117 loss at Oklahoma City, a game in which coach Joe Mazzulla and guard Malcolm Brogdon said the Thunder played harder and were more focused. Tatum said the loss is part of the ups and downs of an NBA season, but wasn’t kidding when he said the team felt the need to atone for two subpar performances on the road — the Celtics lost to Denver, 123-111, Sunday.

“It’s easy to get really down but it’s only two games,” Tatum said. “We’ve still got the best record in the league. It’s not like we’re a bad team or anything. It’s just the ups and downs throughout the NBA season and you have to be honest that we haven’t been playing well the last two games. But it hasn’t defined our season. We know who we are and what we’re capable of. We got a responsibility to bounce back and respond from the way we played the other day.”

Vonleh traded

President of basketball operations Brad Stevens made a minor trade, sending backup center Noah Vonleh to the Spurs for a future protected second-round pick. The move was expected as the deadline for his contract being guaranteed for the season is Saturday.

Vonleh, a Haverhill, Mass., native, was signed with hopes of filling backup center minutes and etching a spot in the rotation. But after some early moments, Vonleh couldn’t avoid foul trouble — especially on illegal screens — and lost his role to Luke Kornet.

Vonleh played in 12 of Boston’s first 14 games, then saw his minutes cut considerably. Vonleh averaged a foul every 4.9 minutes, prompting Mazzulla to opt for Kornet.

“Noah’s a great person; I got to know him,” Mazzulla said. “Anybody who has that type of humility and professionalism … the NBA season is really long and you have to rely on guys at certain times. I thought the beginning of the year he did a great job and helped us kind of start our physicality and do some really good things for us. He helped us get off to a great start with his physicality and helped win some games.”

The Celtics have an open roster spot and could create a second if they decided not to guarantee Justin Jackson’s contract. Jackson has not been part of Mazzulla’s rotation.

Williams returns

Robert Williams returned to action Thursday after missing Tuesday’s loss to rest his surgically repaired left knee, collecting seven rebounds in 21 minutes. Williams said the day off was unexpected but he had been experiencing soreness.

“Got some rest I feel like I needed,” Williams said. “It’s about the long run, obviously. Have to pick and choose how we do [rest], just playing it safe.”

The Celtics have struggled recently with defense, which is Williams’s forte. He was not on the floor when the Thunder rolled up a franchise-record 150 points.

“I feel like we’ve been having great efforts,” he said. “I feel like sometimes our body language gets down a little and it transfers to others but just staying with each other, fight until the end. We don’t really want to talk about that [Oklahoma City game]. Nobody wants to talk about that. It happened unfortunately and we’re ready to bounce back.”

Smart fined $35k

Celtics guard Marcus Smart was fined $35,000 for directing inappropriate language toward a game official. The discipline was announced by Joe Dumars, executive vice president/head of basketball operations for the NBA.

The incident, for which Smart was assessed a second technical foul and ejected, occurred with 2:46 remaining in the third quarter of the Celtics’ loss to the Thunder Tuesday. Mazzulla had to restrain Smart to keep him from charging official Mark Lindsay.

Andrew Mahoney of the Globe staff contributed to this report.

Gary Washburn is a Globe columnist. He can be reached at gary.washburn@globe.com. Follow him on Twitter @GwashburnGlobe.