Jaylen Brown of the Celtics believed he had to dodge two defenders before to his game-winning basket on Monday night, but it wasn’t because the Cavaliers double-teamed him.
After making a game-winning 3-pointer with little over a minute remaining in Boston’s Game 4 victory over Cleveland at Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse, Brown was anything but giddy with delight. Rather, he gave one official a hard jaw and required head coach Joe Mazzulla to detain him close to the Celtics bench.
Following Boston’s 109-102 victory, Brown gave an explanation for his annoyance with referee Tyler Ford.
According to MassLive, Brown told reporters, “I don’t think Tyler, the official who was running down the sideline, was paying attention, but he was like in the play.” I accidentally bumped into him initially as I was raising up. To make the shot, I had to shove him aside so I could catch the ball. I was talking to him, urging him to get his ass out of the way, because he was blocking my path and acting as an extra defender.
When Ford received criticism from the All-Star guard, Brown said he had no idea what he was talking about. Despite his frustration, the eighth-year player admitted that, given the circumstances of the game, the shot’s success and the Celtics’ victory had likely turned it into a “non-story.”
There were other dramatic scenes involving Brown on Monday night besides the one with Ford. In the second quarter, Boston’s franchise cornerstone also engaged in a brief altercation with Cavaliers shooter Max Strus.