Jaylen Brown looked like an MVP candidate with 27 points and eight assists in the Celtics’ 100-95 loss to San Antonio, an outing which included a couple of ridiculous 3-pointers over Victor Wembanyama.
However, a frustrated Brown didn’t get to the free throw line once in the game. In fact, Boston as a team got to the line just four times all game long, compared to 20 for the Spurs. After the game, Brown went off on the officiating.
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“I hope somebody can pull up the clips,” Brown said, via the Associated Press. “It’s the same s*** every time we play a good team. It’s like they refuse to make the calls and they call touch calls on the other end. That’s just extremely frustrating…
“Somebody please pull it up. Every time we play a good team, the inconsistency is crazy. … I’m irate at how they officiated the game today.”
Brown took his NSFW rant to social media.
Brown can count on a fine from the league, but he’d gladly pay it to get what he sees as a fair whistle.
The Spurs allow the lowest percentage of free throws to shot attempts in the league, and the second lowest number of allowed free throws a game at 21.3 — call it the Victor Wembanyama effect. With the best rim protector in the league in the paint (and a solid defender in Luke Kornett there when he’s not), teams tend to pull up more and shoot further out. Brown was no exception, he had four shots inside four feet (make that six feet and he was 3-of-6 shooting) while he took nine shots between four and 14 feet.
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That said, no free throws for Brown and just four for the Celtics as a whole was hard to get your head around. Brown made his point postgame and will get the fine he asked for because he did.