Jaylen Brown viewed his third-quarter foul as the turning point of Friday’s Celtics-Cavaliers game — and an illegitimate one, at that.
Brown was whistled for a loose ball foul while battling Cleveland point guard Darius Garland for a rebound five minutes into the second half. It was his fourth foul of the game, prompting Celtics head coach Joe Mazzulla to pull him off the court to ensure he’d be available in crunch time.
The Cavs, who trailed by 14 at the time, proceeded to score on their next three possessions, then got 10 straight points from Donovan Mitchell later in the quarter, all while Brown watched from the bench. Cleveland took its first lead of the game early in the fourth and went on to win 123-116, overcoming a 22-point first-half deficit in the battle of Eastern Conference front-runners.
Speaking postgame, Brown said his fourth foul “changed the game.” He also believed it should not have been called, and that the 6-foot-1 Garland embellished to draw the whistle.
“I got an offensive foul called on the rebound, and I felt like it was just in the paint, going for the basketball,” said Brown, who returned to play the entire fourth quarter. “That kind of shifted the game, for sure. It is what it is. Wish we could get it back. I don’t think it was a foul. I don’t think it was an offensive foul, but when these little guys flop, they’re just inclined to call it.”
Fouls aside, Brown had one of his best scoring performances of the season in the loss, finishing with 37 points on 13-of-24 shooting (4-for-6 from 3-point range) after missing the previous game with a thigh contusion. Jayson Tatum also set season highs for points (46) and field-goal attempts (37) as Cleveland chose to mostly play the Celtics stars straight-up rather than helping toward them.
Boston’s complementary pieces, however, were quiet. Derrick White added 16 points, but the rest of the Celtics’ shorthanded roster (which was missing Jrue Holiday and Kristaps Porzingis) combined for 17 total. Five Cavs scored in double figures, led by Mitchell’s 41, and Cleveland’s bench outscored Boston’s 33-6.
“I probably could have had more in some spots where I probably could have gotten a better shot or been a little more patient, even for myself,” Brown said. “And same for Jayson. They don’t want to help. I think they were trying to take away our spacing and our shooting, so they were just staying on us instead of trying to make us make the reads and pass. So that means we’ve got to dominate every time down the floor. I felt like I let them off the hook maybe a few times where I could have used some shot fakes, some possessions I definitely want to have back.
“But for the most part, we were aggressive, and that was key for us. But different games we’ll see different game plans each and every night. Sometimes they blitz, sometimes they blue, sometimes they do different things when I have the ball and when Jayson has the ball. Tonight, they for the most part stayed home. We’ve got to make them pay.”
Friday’s game was the fourth and final meeting of the regular season between Cleveland and Boston, who own the best and second-best records in the East, respectively. Each team won two, and all four were close, with the Cavs scoring one more total point than the Celtics across the season series.
Despite playing without two starters against a full-strength Cavaliers team, Brown said the Celtics still should have won.
“I think it was a good fight,” he said. “I think, give credit to Cleveland, they played well. They shot the ball incredibly well, made timely baskets and they climbed back into the game on the road. That’s tough to do. So you’ve got to give them credit. Do I think we had enough to win the game? I think so, for sure. We’ll look at it on film and get better and see spots we can all improve on. But regardless of who was sitting out, we should have won this game.”