Jaylen Brown was the victim of a hard foul from Grant Williams last season in his first matchup with his former teammate. One year later, he did not hold back when asked about Williams hitting Jayson Tatum with a flagrant two foul that led to his ejection in the fourth quarter of the Celtics’ 124-109 win over the Hornets on Friday night.
“I don’t know what that was about,” Brown told reporters in Charlotte. “I think that spoke for itself. I don’t know if Grant missed JT or I don’t know what that was but it wasn’t a basketball player. Grant knows better than that.”
Williams tried to defend his foul after the game, noting that he wasn’t trying to purposefully hurt Tatum in the sequence with 2:02 remaining in the fourth quarter. The play was originally called a common foul but was upgraded to a flagrant 2 after a video review.
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“It was a transition opportunity and I was trying to make a play on the ball,” Williams said, via CLNS Media. “I did reach across his body. When you slow down the replay, it looks like I’m making the play and I just try to go after it. JT’s one of my closest friends in the league. It’s not intentional.”
Brown did not buy that explanation after the game.
“It was for sure intentional,” Brown declared. “What are we talking about? You’ll all see the same play? He hit him like it was a football play, like Ray Lewis coming across the middle or something. It is what it is. Grant knows better than that.”
Brown was one of the more vocal Celtics after the foul sequence and had to be held back as he shouted at Williams while assistant Tony Dobbins escorted him back to the bench.
“It’s just us against the world,” Brown told reporters of his mentality. “So, as a leader, I ride for all my guys in the locker room. And teams like to send messages and try to set the tone and do all different type of stuff to try to either get us out of character or mess with our mind or make us feel like we soft or whatever the case is, (and) we not going for none of that.”
The Celtics will get a chance for some revenge against Williams and the Hornets on Saturday night in a rematch at the Spectrum Center.
“Actions speak loud, so it is what it is,” Brown said. “We got the win, we move on, but, there’s no place in the game for that. I thought JT and Grant was friends. I guess not.”
