BOSTON — In the wake of a 100-95 loss to the San Antonio Spurs on Saturday night, Celtics star Jaylen Brown went on an extended rant directed at the officiating crew, including singling out crew chief Curtis Blair by name, after Boston shot just four free throws in the contest.
“I feel like, honestly, they just got away with a lot, and I’m tired of the inconsistency,” Brown said. “I’ll accept the fine at this point. I thought it was some bulls— tonight. I think [the Spurs are] a good defensive team, but they ain’t that damn good.
“I hope somebody can just pull up the clips, because it’s the same s— every time we play a good team. It’s like they refuse to make a call then call touch fouls on the other end.”
“That’s just extremely frustrating, bro. Like, we play hard,” he continued. “We were outplaying our expectations. We compete hard on the defensive end. Then they reward the other team with touch fouls. Then we go down there and guys are allowed to get away with … I hope, just somebody please pull it up.
“Every time we play a good team, the inconsistency is crazy. I’ll take the f—ing fine. Curtis, all them dudes was terrible tonight. I don’t care. They can fine me whatever they want. But it’s crazy. Every time we play a good team, it’s the same bulls—. Somebody please pull up the clips.”
When Brown was asked if this is a new problem this season, he said, “I don’t know what’s going on. I got my conspiracies or whatever, but I don’t know what’s going on. But it seems like every time we play a good team, it’s the same s—.”
San Antonio went 14-for-20 from the free throw line Saturday night, as compared with 3-for-4 from Boston, with two of those four foul shots coming from Derrick White with 37 seconds remaining.
“If we can’t get to the free throw line and teams are allowed to be physical and bump us off our spots, etc., then it’s hard to win games like that,” Brown said. “We shot four free throws tonight and lost the game by four. Not to say that’s the whole game, the whole story. We got to be better in spots. I got to be better in spots. But goddamn. I’m driving to the basket. I’m physical. I don’t flop. I don’t shy away from contact. I go up strong. I’m athletic. And nothing. Zero free throws tonight. The inconsistency is f—ing crazy. Give me the fine.”
Celtics coach Joe Mazzulla said Boston had to clean up its defense when asked about the foul shot discrepancy.
“I mean, we obviously have to be better defending without fouling,” he said. “I mean, there’s no question about that. We have to do better defending without fouling. I would say out of those 20 free throws, there’s about four or five fouls that we have to be able to control, just get better at that on the defensive end.”
Brown, who is having a career season with the Celtics (24-14), had a fourth quarter to forget in Saturday’s loss. Playing all 12 minutes, he went 1-for-9 from the field and committed two turnovers (the only two Boston had in the fourth). That included the turning point of the game, when he missed a wide-open 3-pointer with Boston down 95-93 with 1:19 remaining. That was followed by getting the ball stolen from him by De’Aaron Fox in the open court, which led to a Julian Champagnie layup to give San Antonio a four-point lead with 37 seconds to go that it would not relinquish.
“In the end? I thought it was a good game,” said Brown, who had 27 points, 8 rebounds and 7 assists but shot just 11-for-28 from the field and committed five of Boston’s 10 turnovers on the night. “I thought we did what we needed to do. At the end, we just had a few possessions that got away from us. I think I should have probably just held the ball. Get some space. I had a costly turnover and I had an open look too, at the end, that I got to knock down.
“I thought we played good today, for the most part.”
But it was the Spurs (27-11) who had just enough in the end, despite big struggles offensively from dynamic young guards Stephon Castle (3-for-16) and Dylan Harper (2-for-7). Thankfully for San Antonio, it still had Victor Wembanyama, who picked up his game after a slow start — once again coming off the bench — to score 21 points.
Wembanyama hit a pair of jumpers in the closing moments, with the second one at 19.1 seconds left sealing the contest.
“The mindset was just [we] have to close out that game,” said Wembanyama, who also tallied six rebounds, three blocks and an assist in 26 minutes. “It’s easier said than done, but too often we do lots of efforts and let it go to waste one way or the other. So, I felt like not letting that happen.”
It was the third straight game in which Wembanyama came off the bench after returning to the court from a knee injury, though he said the plan is for him to be back in the starting lineup soon. The superstar big man can only miss three more games the rest of the season to remain eligible for end-of-season awards due to the NBA’s 65-game rule to qualify.
