Jaylen Brown Takes Subtle Jab At Refs After Celtics’ Loss To Nuggets

The Boston Celtics were favored to take down the Nikola Jokic-less Denver Nuggets on Wednesday night, but instead, they ended up suffering a tough 114-110 loss. After the game, superstar forward Jaylen Brown seemed to indicate that he was not happy with the officiating in this game.

Brown turned in another standout performance for the C’s, as he scored a game-high 33 points on 14/29 shooting while also hauling in seven rebounds and dishing out four assists. It wasn’t enough to overcome a lights-out shooting performance from the Nuggets, though.

Curiously, Brown had just three free-throw attempts on the night for Boston, as the team got to the charity stripe just 15 times. Throughout the season, Brown has been vocal in his displeasure with his lack of free-throw attempts, and he echoed that message again after this loss.

“I normally get to my spots and go up and be physical and go to the basket, and I draw a lot of contact, I’m one of the more aggressive players in the league,” Brown said when speaking to reporters. “I drive a lot, and the whistle didn’t equate to that. Maybe they wanted to make an emphasis, I don’t know.”

With more responsibility on his shoulders this season, Brown is averaging a career-high 7.2 free throw attempts per game. When considering how he is leading the league with 16.2 two-point attempts per game, though, it feels like Brown isn’t getting to the line as much as he should be.

It hasn’t stopped Brown from putting together a career year, but it’s fair to wonder what his numbers would look like if he got a more consistent whistle from referees across the league. Brown will look to lead the C’s back to the win column on Friday night when they square off against the Toronto Raptors.