The Eastern Conference Semifinals series between the Washington Wizards and Boston Celtics has not had a shortage of physicality and flaring tempers. Proof of this is the number of technical fouls, and even a suspension, that have been handed out through the first four games of their matchup.
Kelly Oubre made a lot of headlines when he shoved Kelly Olynyk after a hard screen was set on him by the Celtics big man. Scott Brooks spoke about the incident and said it's hard to blame his backup swingman for his actions as he was hit in the head multiple times. Now, the veteran head coach talked about knowing who the real “dirty” players are in the league, and also discussed what he thinks is the difference between playing hard and playing to hurt someone.
“There's a difference between being physical and dirty. We all know who the dirty players are. That's not what the league is about — these guys come out, all of our athletes put everything on the line. The physical nature of the game keeps them playing, so you don't want to go out there with the intention to hurt. But you want to be physical. It's a physical game. You set screens, you go around screens, you take hard fouls. That's just part of being a good physical basketball team. When you go out there to try to hurt somebody, that's out of line.”
With the series now tied at two games apiece, the stakes are even higher in all the remaining games. It can be expected that both teams will not give an inch to one another, as they will look to get the upper hand starting in Game 5.
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