Boston Celtics
“I think in the fourth quarter, I think the officials made their point.”
Jaylen Brown has had some things to say about officiating this week.
The Celtics star seemed to take a dig at officials in his postgame remarks for the second time in three games following their 123-110 loss to the Magic on Friday.
“I think in the fourth quarter, I think the officials made their point,” Brown told reporters when asked why he felt his scoring went cold in the fourth quarter.
However, before Brown made any further comments about the officiating, he stopped himself.
“I get it,” Brown said. “I’ll keep my mouth closed.”
In a follow-up, Brown didn’t take the bait when he was asked what he meant.
“I get it. I’ll keep my mouth closed,” Brown said again.
Later on, Brown said the Magic were a “physical team” and “felt like they were grabbing me and pulling me, trying to knock me off balance.”
Brown took a far more direct and elaborate tone in his criticism of the refs following the Celtics’ 105-103 loss to the Jazz on Monday. In the final minute of that game, Brown believed that the refs made a mistake by not calling a foul on Jazz guard Keyonte George when he appeared to trip him as he drove to the basket before turning the ball over in the final minute.
“You can’t have a mistake like that as an official at that point in the game,” Brown said. “It’s fourth quarter, it’s a minute left in the game or less, and you completely – the whole staff blows the [expletive] call, you know what I mean? Cost us the game. Unacceptable.
“You can make mistakes at any point of the game, but right there, that wasn’t good. That wasn’t good. That was unacceptable. And then they’re telling me like, ‘Aw, we didn’t see it.’ How did none of you see it? You can’t trip somebody in the fourth quarter and then just be a no call. It’s some [expletive].”
In what might be considered a surprise, Brown wasn’t fined for his remarks following Monday’s game. In most instances, players who criticize refs typically receive a fine from the league in the following days.
However, the league said that there was a missed foul call on that play against the Jazz in its last two-minute report. Had a foul been called, Brown would’ve gone to the free-throw line with a chance to put the Celtics up by three with roughly 50 seconds remaining.
As for Friday’s game, Brown put up another 30-point performance. He scored 32 points on 15-of-28 shooting, marking the third straight game he’s scored at least 30 and the sixth time in the last eight games he’s crossed that threshold.
But Brown went 1-of-5 from the field in the fourth quarter of Friday’s game against the Magic, scoring just two points. He took some accountability for his fourth-quarter scoring struggles on Friday.
“In the fourth quarter, I missed some good looks that I could have got my feet set just a little bit more,” Brown told reporters. “And then it compounded, turned into some turnovers, and then they scored. For our team, they probably need me to make those shots. I’m human. If I shoot a shot and I feel good about it, I feel good, but you know, I’ve got to be a little better, I guess.”
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