Jaylen Brown played a good game today. But, in the fourth quarter of the game against the Heat, he hooked Duncan Robinson out of frustration. Then, what was worse, was that he wouldn’t let it go and kept talking to the referees. It was “extra.” Duncan Robinson wasn’t backing down from Brown and kept playing defense against Boston’s best. Brown made a good defensive play against Adebayo after the Heat closed to two points. He made a good shot to push the lead, but all he needed to do was yell, “GET THE FU*K OFF ME!!”
The Heat got outplayed and run out of the building. Check out my recap article here. The Heat lost but they played Heat basketball today. They disrupted the Celtics and kept the game close. This was without Jimmy Butler. The team is slowly getting ready for the playoffs.
Recap #3 — More Heat injuries.
Unfortunately Jimmy Butler had a death in the family and was granted a leave of absence by the team. Then, Josh Richardson injured his shoulder while jockeying for the ball with Jayson Tatum. Then, Terry Rozier went down in the game. Check out this article here from Bleacher Report on the extent of the injury. Then, Caleb Martin turned his ankle, then Robinson got his arm twisted. The Heat players fought Boston “tooth and nail” the whole game and were pushing hard to “get a breakthrough” as Coach Spolestra said in his on-court interview during the third quarter.
Recap #2 –Boston won this key stretch of the game.
Boston did respond well when Miami cut the lead to 96-92. Check out the article here on Inside the Celtics from SI.com about the aftermath of the Brown-Robinson exchange. The Heat kept though pushing the rock uphill and couldn’t breakthrough. Boston pushed the lead back up to 101-94 when Adebayo and Herro made big shots. The Heat got to within 2 at 106-104 and the crowd were going nuts. Haywood Highsmith had a clear look at a three pointer to take the lead but Porzingis grabbed the offensive rebound and pushed the Celtics lead after shooting two free throws on a Caleb Martin loose ball foul.
The score was 108-104 and the Heat still had a shot. The play of the game was Boston securing an offensive rebound on a missed three point shot by Brown. Porzingis tapped it away and it almost went out of bounds but not out of Brown’s reach and it looked as if the Heat were “caught sleeping,” thinking the ball would go out of bounds. The comeback was over.
Recap #1 — Brown’s foul was “extra”
Jalen Brown is a good player and I agree with Richard Jefferson that he’s not a dirty player. But, his Flagrant 1 foul on Duncan Robinson was “extra.” Check out this article here from NBC Sports Boston on Robinson calling Brown out. It was obvious that Brown was frustrated at Robinson. He flung his arm under Robinson’s and in doing so pushed Robinson’s arm the wrong way. Robinson stayed down for awhile but was able to stay in the game.
When the decision was made by the referees that the foul would be a flagrant 1, Brown refused to drop the issue. He continued to talk to the referees at the opposite side of the court. Duncan Robinson appeared to confront Brown and then the tension sparked again. Brown and Robinson needed to be separated and Brown still wouldn’t drop the issue. Brown played well on defense and knocked down a key three pointer afterwards. He could’ve just yelled, “Get the fu*k off of me!” instead of potentially injuring Robinson permanently.
