Boston Celtics star Jaylen Brown was understandably frustrated after officials did not whistle Utah Jazz guard Keyonte George for a tripping foul in the final minute of Monday’s game at TD Garden.
With less than a minute remaining and the Celtics clinging to a one-point lead, George fell to the ground, and Brown tripped over him while trying to drive into the paint. The Celtics star lost the ball as a result of the trip, and the Jazz scored a bucket in transition to take a 103-102 lead with 44 seconds remaining.
“Y’all are going to get me fined,” Brown responded when asked about the play. “You can’t have a mistake like that as an official at that point in the game. It’s fourth quarter. It’s a minute left in the game, or less. And you completely — the whole staff blows the f—ing call. Costs us the game.
“Unacceptable. You can make mistakes at any point in the game, but right there, that wasn’t good. That wasn’t good. It’s unacceptable.
“Then they’re telling me like, ‘We didn’t see it.’ How none of you see it? You can’t trip somebody in the fourth quarter and it just be a no-call. It’s some bulls—,” Brown said.
When asked about the no-call after the game in a pool report, lead official Kevin Scott explained why no foul was called in that situation.
“During live play the crew observed George slip and fall just prior to Brown slipping on the same spot resulting in the ball becoming loose prior to any contact,” Scott told The Boston Globe’s Adam Himmelsbach.
“… The crew observed both players slip and fall prior to any contact. That’s why a foul was not called during live play.”
While that explanation likely won’t satisfy Brown or Celtics fans, that no-call wasn’t the only reason Boston this game. The Jazz outrebounded the Celtics 55 to 36 and racked up 15 offensive rebounds, the last of which was a Jusuf Nurkic putback over Neemias Queta with 0.6 seconds remaining that sealed Boston’s fate.
As for Brown, he should expect to be hearing from the league at some point after sounding off on the officials Monday night.