Boston Celtics star Jaylen Brown entered the playoffs battling a bone bruise in his right knee, and now has a dislocated finger to contend with after being on the receiving end of a flagrant foul from Cole Anthony in the Orlando Magic’s 95-93 win in Game 3 of the teams’ first-round series.
After the loss, a frustrated Brown called out the Magic for their overly physical play during the series, and took a shot at the officials in the process.
“There might be a fight [that will] break out or something. It’s starting to feel like it’s not even basketball, and the refs is not controlling the environment,” Brown said. “It is what it is. If we want to fight it out, we can do that. We can fight to see who goes to the second round.”
Early in the second quarter, Brown drove to the basket, pivoted around Anthony and tried to go up for a layup, but was yanked to the ground by the Magic guard. Brown put his hands out to brace his fall, but his left hand landed on Anthony’s foot, which led to the dislocated finger.
After a review, the play was upgraded to a flagrant foul penalty 1 due to the “wind-up and hard impact” by Anthony, as well as a “follow through that throws Brown to the floor,” crew chief David Guthrie told the arena and the broadcast.
“Dislocated my index finger, but I got nine more,” Brown said. “So I’m alright.”
He played the remainder of the game, finishing with 19 points and six rebounds on 50% shooting, but also turned the ball over six times.
In the first three games of this series, which the Celtics now lead 2-1, the Magic have been called for three flagrant fouls.
In Game 1, Kentavious Caldwell-Pope was given a flagrant-1 for his hit that sent Jayson Tatum to the ground and caused a “severe” bone bruise in Tatum’s right wrist. Tatum sat out of Game 2, but returned on Friday to put up 36 points, nine rebounds and four assists.
Jayson Tatum injury update: Celtics star available to play in Game 3 vs. Magic
James Herbert
In Game 2, Goga Bitadze was assessed a flagrant-1 after a reckless elbow connected flush with Kristaps Porzingis‘ forehead and opened a gash that required five stitches to close. Porzingis missed a portion of that contest, but was in action for Game 3 — though he shot just 3 of 10 and admitted he played “like s—.”
“The flagrant fouls is piling up, you know what I mean?” Brown said. “It is what it is. We just gotta be ready for Game 4.”
Despite being on the receiving end of plenty of physicality, turning the ball over 21 times — which led to 26 Magic points — as well as playing without Jrue Holiday, who was sidelined with a knee sprain and recording their lowest-scoring quarter of the season in the third (11 points), the Celtics only lost by two.
They’re still in good shape against the Magic, and Brown vowed that they’ll be ready for Game 4 on Sunday afternoon. Though he wouldn’t mind some help from the refs.
“I don’t have a problem with the game being physical, but it seems like when I use my physicality, I get called in the opposite direction,” Brown said. “That’s what my frustration was. It was just a tough whistle tonight. … Orlando played well, so we’ll be ready for Game 4. We had every opportunity to win this game and we came up short, but we’ll be ready for the next one.”
