Jaylen Brown can expect a firmly worded letter from the NBA in his inbox over the next few days. He made very clear he is OK with that on Saturday.
In a battle between two teams near the top of their conference standings, Brown’s Boston Celtics lost 100-95 to the San Antonio Spurs. Boston finished the game with a season-low four free throws, while the Spurs received 20 attempts.
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Brown had a productive but inefficient game with 27 points on 11-of-28 shooting (and zero free-throw attempts), plus 8 rebounds, 7 assists and 5 turnovers. After the game, he blasted the officiating crew of Curtis Blair, Nick Buchert and Jason Goldenberg while speaking to reporters:
“I’ll accept the fine at this point. I thought it was some bulls*** tonight. I think they’re 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 they call touch fouls on the other end, and that’s just extremely frustrating, bro.
“We play hard. We are outplaying our expectations, we compete hard on the defensive end and they reward the other team with touch fouls and we go down there and guys are allowed to get away with — 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.”
While we can’t break down every call and non-call Brown has in mind, the data indicates he might have a point. As a team, the Celtics had received 4.4 fewer free-throw attempts than their opponent per game entering Saturday, the lowest mark in the NBA, while the Spurs are the second-highest at 4.7 more than their opponent per game (the Los Angeles Lakers are first at 4.8 more).
What’s more, if we are to take “a good team” to mean a team that has won at least 60% of its games this season, that free-throw margin becomes an incredible 10.7 fewer per game when including the Spurs game. In a Nov. 1 loss to the Houston Rockets, Houston received 28 more free-throw attempts than Boston.
This all comes with a disclaimer: equal free-throw attempts does not mean good officiating. Different styles of play on offense and defense lead to different foul rates. An offense that focuses on driving the ball is going to receive more free throws than one that attempts more 3-pointers. The Celtics could fall in the latter category, as they have the second-most 3-point attempts per game in the league.
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Still, the team at the bottom of pile in what is essentially a ref decision is never going to be happy, and Brown insisted that the allowed physicality was hurting his team:
“I’m irate at how they officiated the game today. If we can’t get to the free throw line, and teams are allowed to be physical and bump us off our spots, it’s hard to win games like that. We shot four free throws tonight and lost the game by four.
“Not to say that’s the whole game, the whole story. We’ve got to be better in spots, I’ve 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. I had zero free throws tonight. The inconsistency is f***ing crazy. Give me the fine.”
This isn’t the first time this season he’s complained about the officiating.
The loss knocks the Celtics’ record down to 24-14, placing them in a tie with the New York Knicks for the second-best record in the Eastern Conference. However they are officiated, they’ve still been one of the NBA’s biggest surprises in a Jayson Tatum-less season.
In Tatum’s absence, Brown is averaging a career-high 29.5 points per game and will almost certainly be suiting up at the NBA All-Star Game next month if healthy.
