Celtics Star Jaylen Brown Explains Game 4 Tussle With Max Strus

Max Strus has plenty of playoff history with the Boston Celtics.

And the Cleveland Cavaliers guard added to it by getting tangled up with Celtics star Jaylen Brown in Boston’s 109-102 Game 4 win on Monday night.

The incident occurred after Brown converted a contested layup and fell into the legs of Strus with 8:47 left in the second quarter. Strus came close to toppling over Brown, but caught himself by putting two hands on the court as his foot also made contact with the back of Brown’s head. Strus then regained his balance and as he hopped over Brown to head down the floor, Brown swiped at Strus’ foot, causing him to hit the deck.

That made Brown public enemy No. 1 among those inside Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse, but he didn’t let the fans’ constant booing of him or his tussle with Strus negatively impact him.

“I embrace it,” Brown told reporters, per MassLive’s Souichi Terada. “I drove to the basket, felt like there was some contact, finished the play, landed on the ground. I feel like somebody kicking me in the back of the head, so I feel like I got the right to remove or at least trying to protect that.”

Brown was called for a common foul on the play, which was initially upheld on video review as the referees didn’t deem Brown’s actions unnecessary or excessive. The officials went to the monitor for a second time, though, and gave Brown an away-from-play foul.

Strus knows all too well what it is like to be in a heated playoff series with the Celtics. He previously spent three seasons with the Miami Heat, who have had a good share of run-ins with the Celtics in the postseason.

There was no further drama between Brown and Strus after that, though. Brown was adamant that he wasn’t trying to cause any harm to Strus on the play.

“I wasn’t trying to do nothing there, trying to trip nobody up,” Brown said. “But at the same time, you’re not about to just kick me in the head. It is what it is. I think they made the right call and we move on.”

The altercation didn’t take Brown off his game. He finished with 27 points on an efficient 9-for-15 shooting to go along with eight rebounds as he helped the Celtics put the Cavaliers on the brink of elimination. Boston owns a 3-1 series lead heading into Wednesday’s Game 5.