BOSTON — The Celtics, again from a three-day break, endured a loss to the inferior Chicago Bulls on Thursday evening, however that was removed from the most important concern looming amongst these within the reigning champions’ locker room the previous few days.
Jaylen Brown and assistant coach Amile Jefferson have been each victims of current residence break-ins at their respective Massachusetts residences earlier this week. Brown and Jefferson have been on the street because the Celtics matched up in opposition to the Wizards in Washington, D.C., on Sunday, giving the intruders time to invade and steal Jefferson’s 2024 championship ring. No person at both Brown or Jefferson’s houses was harmed, however the incidents — nonetheless beneath investigation by Massachusetts police — shook up the 28-year-old.
Brown missed follow earlier within the week to be alongside his mom at his Wellesley, Mass., residence and expressed his feelings following Boston’s 117-108 loss to the Bulls.
“The Celtics have introduced a number of info for us to sort of determine it out and ensure we are able to do our job once we journey and stuff,” Brown mentioned. “And I do know it’s been occurring in several components of the world and in several components of the (United States) the place comparable issues have occurred to athletes, and so on. So hopefully anyone who (it) hasn’t occurred to but, simply be sure to have the issues in place to be sure that it doesn’t. However clearly, to undergo that have, you recognize folks nonetheless in there, nonetheless within the crib, it simply makes you concentrate on some issues in another way.”
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When questions concerning the incident adopted, Brown sighed and labored to redirect the postgame dialog to focus solely on the Celtics’ underperformance, which dropped the group to 21-6 on the season.
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“Subsequent query,” Brown responded.
The Celtics struggled tremendously from begin to end in opposition to the Bulls, taking pictures simply 25% from 3-point vary on 56 makes an attempt — a serious dip from Boston’s 36.7% on the marketing campaign. And Brown, who had solely reached 4 factors by halftime, clawed and battled to get Boston inside hanging distance earlier than the ultimate buzzer. However that effort got here to no avail and as a substitute pried into Brown’s frustrations within the essential closing stretch.
Brown was charged with a technical foul seconds after Celtics head coach Joe Mazzulla was assessed a technical foul. That introduced Boston from a three-point deficit with 5:12 left within the fourth quarter to a five-point deficit, sparking an 18-12 Bulls run to bury the Celtics and mud their fingers off with ease.
“Right here’s the factor: You get fined, I obtained fined a few weeks in the past for inadvertent gestures which might be decided not part of the sport, which was high quality. I took the high quality,” Brown mentioned of the technical foul. “However what a part of the sport is a ref calling inadvertent technical fouls after which like I mentioned to him, ‘You referred to as a tech for no purpose.’ He mentioned, ‘When you say it to me once more, I’m gonna name one other tech.’ (I mentioned once more), ‘You name a tech for no purpose,’ then he referred to as the tech. Like man, get outta right here. You may’t threaten guys with a technical foul. That’s not a part of the sport, both. You wanna high quality folks for gestures and all these things. Effective that. That was some (expletive).”
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Brown and the Celtics will see the Bulls once more on Saturday evening in Chicago.
