Jaylen Brown had good reason to be miffed about the end of Monday night’s Celtics game.
The NBA announced Tuesday that Jazz guard Keyonte George should have been called for a foul when he slipped into Brown’s path in the final minute of Boston’s 105-103 loss to Utah at TD Garden.
Brown tripped over George and lost the ball, leading to a go-ahead transition layup for Lauri Markkanen. A foul on George would have sent Brown to the free-throw line with the chance to give Boston a three-point lead with 50 seconds remaining.
Crew chief Kevin Scott defended the no-call after the game, saying the officials “observed George slip and fall just prior to Brown slipping on the same spot, resulting in the ball becoming loose prior to any contact.” Brown blasted the decision, saying it “cost (the Celtics) the game.”
“Man, y’all going to get fined because you can’t have a mistake like that as an official at that point in the game,” Brown said postgame. “It’s fourth quarter. There’s a minute left in the game or less. And you completely — the whole staff blows the (expletive) call, you know what I mean? It cost us the game. Unacceptable. You can make mistakes at any point of the game, but right there, that wasn’t good. That wasn’t good. That was unacceptable.
“And then they’re telling me like, ‘Aw, we didn’t see it.’ How did none of you see it? You can’t trip somebody in the fourth quarter and then just be a no-call. It’s some (BS).”
The NBA’s Last Two Minute Report confirmed all other calls and no-calls made in the closing minutes of Celtics-Jazz, though it noted one foul by Boston center Neemias Queta should have instead been assessed to Derrick White.
Brown scored a game-high 36 points in the loss, including eight in the final three minutes as Boston rallied back from a 12-point fourth-quarter deficit. The Celtics star has topped 30 points in four of his eight games this season.
