Late in the Celtics' loss to the Spurs, I got a text from a friend watching at home.
“JB is annoyed with the refs. Not a good thing.”
For only the second time this season, Jaylen Brown ended a game with zero free throw attempts, and the other one was the blowout loss to the Rockets when he played half as many minutes as he did against the Spurs.
This was not an acceptable result for him.
“I feel like, honestly, they just got away with a lot, and I'm tired of the inconsistency,” Brown said in a postgame rant in the locker room. “I'll accept the fine at this point. I thought it was some bullshit tonight. I think they're a good defensive team, but they ain't that damn good.”
He was only just getting started.
“I hope somebody can just pull up the clips because it's the same shit every time we play a good team,” he continued. “It's like they refuse to make a call. Then call touch falls on the other end. That's just extremely frustrating, bro, like we play hard. We were outplaying our expectations. We compete hard on the defensive end. Then they reward the other team with touch fouls. Then we go down there and guys are allowed to get away with …
“The inconsistency is crazy. I'll take the f----ing fine. Curtis (Blair), those dudes was terrible tonight. I don't care. They can fine me whatever they want. But it's crazy. Every time we play a good team, it's the same bullshit. Somebody please pull up the clips. I'm irate at how they officiated the game today.”
Brown wasn’t alone in his frustration. Derrick White was showing some rare emotions on the floor as well. On one play, he was fouled multiple times on the perimeter before one was finally called on his drive. After the whistle, he pretended to cock back the ball to throw it at the ref who made the call, before calmly handing it to the official standing next to him.
Everyone got a chuckle out of that. But White was still ticked by how things went down.