Every time he touched the ball, Jaylen Brown got raucously booed by the Cleveland crowd. The boos — a result of a second-quarter entanglement with Max Strus — never wavered, all the way until the final buzzer.
Luckily for the Celtics, neither did Brown’s offense, nor his confidence.
“I embraced it,” Brown said of his newfound villain status at Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse.
Jaylen Brown was called for a common foul after grabbing Max Strus’ ankle.
Should this have been upgraded to a flagrant? pic.twitter.com/baIkjY19ik
— ClutchPoints (@ClutchPoints) May 13, 2024
Brown had just finished a layup when Max Strus landed on top of him. Brown reacted by grabbed Strus’ leg, an act that was reviewed for being a hostile act but was ultimately deemed a common foul, much to the disdain of the home crowd.
“I drove to the basket, felt like there was some contact, finished the play, landing on the ground, and I feel like somebody kicking me in the back of the head,” Brown said, recounting the incident.
“I feel like I got the right to remove or at least try to protect that. I wasn’t trying to do nothing there and trying to trip nobody up, but at the same time, you’re not about to just kick me in the head. It is what it is. I think they made the right call, and we moved on.”
Brown certainly moved on from the incident: He finished Game 4 with 27 points on 9 of 15 shooting, including 2-3 from three. All night, he relentlessly attacked the basket, increasing his aggression in the second half, in particular, when he put up 16 points and frequently exploited Darius Garland as a defender.
“I just get into the paint, take my time, and I feel like that’s what I’ve been doing, not just in the playoffs but all season long,” Brown said. “So, I just get to my spots and just do what I do.”
In four conference semifinal games against Cleveland, Brown is averaging 26.5 points and shooting 61.2% from the field.
Brown comes through in the clutch – and yes, the Celtics finally played clutch time minutes
For the first time since April 5th, the Celtics played clutch-time minutes, officially defined as the last five minutes of a game that is within five points.
Looking to go up 3-1 on the series, the Celtics led by 5 with just over a minute to play when Tatum found Brown on the wing for an open three-pointer. Swish.
Tatum, who was ecstatic, hit Brown’s chest so hard that Brown recoiled in pain.
“I didn’t realize how hard I hit…
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