On Wednesday, the Boston Celtics got back into the win column with a comfortable home victory over the Washington Wizards. This win was preceded by an ugly home loss against the Utah Jazz, one in which Jaylen Brown appeared to be tripped on a play in the final minutes but did not get a call, leading to a Utah bucket on the other end.
Brown has since put the officials on blast and been vindicated by the last two minutes report, and recently, it was revealed that he suffered no punishment as a result of his harsh comments.
“Jaylen Brown was not fined by the NBA for his comments criticizing the missed tripping call in the final minute of Monday’s 105-103 loss to the Utah #Jazz. He fully expected a fine but the NBA declared it a missed call and error in the two-minute report. ‘I guess they understood (my anger)' he said,” reported Gary Washburn of the Boston Globe for the Celtics.
While the missed call certainly didn't help, the Celtics also lost the game against the Jazz due to their inability to offensive rebound, as Jusuf Nurkic scored the winning basket on a put back with under a second to play.
Interesting times for the Celtics
Currently, the Boston Celtics sit at 4-5, good for tenth place in the Eastern Conference at this early juncture of the season. The lower half of the play-in tournament is about in line with where most pundits expected the Celtics to be this season considering the fact that Jayson Tatum is out of the lineup and the team had to trade both Kristaps Porzingis and Jrue Holiday over the offseason.
Some Celtics fans will want the team to fully embrace being bad and hope to contend for a high lottery pick, while others don't want to see the team miss the playoffs for the first time since 2013-14.
At this point, it seems that the Celtics may still be a bit too talented to be among the worst teams in the league this year.
