Celtics fight back against painful, momentum-killing Jaylen Brown trend

A new chapter in the season-long Jaylen Brown vs. NBA officials rivalry was written this past weekend. Across the Boston Celtics’ matchups with the Miami Heat and New York Knicks, Brown was twice whistled for offensive fouls in situations where he rose up to shoot and made contact with an opposing defender’s face.

“Defensive guys are just putting their face, and I’m allowed to go up into my normal shot motion,” he explained in the locker room after Sunday’s loss to the Knicks, via CLNS Media. “Just because their face is in there, they give them the offensive foul.”

The 'defending with your face' offensive foul calls are momentum killers

Not only are these calls annoying because of the lack of aggression on Brown’s end, but also because they almost always result in a multi-possession swing.

After the above clip, New York came down and scored a layup to push their lead to 12. Had the call gone Boston’s way, the made basket and potential free-throw from Brown would’ve cut it to just seven points. That five-point swing could’ve been massive in a game where the Celtics struggled to find any offense.

“A guy shouldn’t be able to put his face in there and get an offensive foul,” Brown continued. “If I go up into my normal shot motion, if his face is there or not, that’s on him.”

JB makes a great point. How many times have you been watching an NBA game and seen a player deliberately jump into his defender and get rewarded with a trip to the free-throw line? Yet, there’s nothing unnatural about the way Brown rose up in either of these two occasions.

The latter came in the final minute of Friday’s comeback win over Miami, and could’ve easily cost the Celtics the game, as Brown pointed out.

“It almost cost us the game last game, we ended up winning, but it should’ve been an and-one,” he explained. “Tonight, it was the same thing. Hopefully, we find some consistency on it, but Imma just keep playing basketball.”

A potential three points came off the board for Boston when the officials decided Brown had fouled Andrew Wiggins. Not only did they make the decision in the moment, but they stood by it when the Celtics challenged the call.

Fortunately for the Celtics, the Heat weren’t able to capitalize on their added opportunity, and Boston held on for the 98-96 victory.

Brown told reporters on Sunday that the Cs have sent clips of plays like those above to the league for review.

The star forward’s play has been consistent all season. He’s produced on an All-NBA level while leading the Celtics to a 34-19 record thus far. His willingness to hold officials accountable has been consistent, too. He’s spoken out several times, lobbying for more consistency with calls on drives.

In fairness to him, he’ll have games where he gets to the line over 10 times, and others where he’ll only make one or two trips. Yet, for the most part, he’s been aggressive going to the rim every night.

Even if you can’t get behind those complaints, it’s reasonable for JB to speak out against the league’s enablement of players defending with their faces.