BOSTON — The Celtics and Bucks already have plenty of regular season and playoff history as the East rivals know each other well. Plus, when they met Friday at TD Garden, it was the third time in 39 days the teams had seen each other.
So when Jaylen Brown picked up a technical foul with 10:39 left in the third quarter, it was because there was a little history with Giannis Antetokounmpo. It was clear Brown was trying to send a message, which drew praise from C’s coach Joe Mazzulla after Boston’s third win in as many tries over Milwaukee.
“I thought that was great,” Mazzulla said. “I thought the technical was tremendous by Jaylen. And I thought from there on in, it just brought out an edge in us, and we were able to feed off that. So just thankful for all those things that kind of brought the edge out of us.”
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The stretch initially started after Brown crossed over Antetokounmpo then got to the bucket to score over the Bucks star with his left hand. Brown made the “too small” gesture after scoring as Antetokounmpo was inbounding the ball. But in the process, Antetokounmpo glanced Brown with his right elbow as Brown was trying to walk past him.
Brown took exception to that. As Damian Lillard brought the ball up, Brown was matched up against Antetokounmpo. As Antetokounmpo looked to run up the court, Brown got in his way and pointed at him a couple times. The referee then called the technical foul on Brown, much to the dismay of the Celtics crowd.
Of course, there was a bit more context between Brown and Antetokounmpo this season stemming from their last matchup Nov. 10. Back then, Antetokounmpo hit Brown in the head with an elbow that was called an offensive foul. Antetokounmpo went for the handshake seemingly to say sorry for the play afterwards, only for him to fake-out Brown at the last second.
Brown wasn’t happy about that, either, calling Antetokounmpo a “child” postgame. The Bucks star shrugged off Brown’s comments, saying he was just having fun during the game. Though considering Antetokounmpo fouled Brown pretty hard then did the fake handshake, it’s not too much of a surprise that the C’s star was mad about the interaction.
There weren’t too many fireworks after all Brown’s technical Friday in what was a tough, physical game that came with a playoff atmosphere Friday. The teams know each other well, but they won’t play again this season unless they meet in the playoffs. The Celtics swept the Bucks in the season series as the reigning champs again flexed their muscles, even if they weren’t perfect Friday.
“Our defense was tremendous throughout the entire game,” Mazzulla said. “Usually when you go through lulls offensively, at some point, your defense cracks. And I thought tonight it didn’t, mainly because I thought we got great shots almost the entire game. We made the right read when we got to our spacing, moved the ball.”
