The Celtics went on the road and beat the Golden State Warriors, 99-86, on Wednesday night in another impressive win, after also dispatching the Cavs in a recent thriller. Rookie Jaylen Brown didn’t put up a monster stat line (three points, three rebounds, and two assists), but he was a part of the bench unit that the Celtics rode to victory, as noted by his +13 rating.
While Brown didn’t have a big night offensively, he was active on the defensive end as the Celtics shut down the Warriors’ high-powered attack. Golden State still seems to be spinning its tires a little bit in Kevin Durant’s absence.
At the end of the third quarter, Golden State took a two point lead after Steph Curry shook loose from Brown with a savvy up and under move and buried a three-pointer. Curry then pointed at Brown and chirped at him, letting the rookie know he’d gotten him.
Steph with a little something to say pic.twitter.com/pP3nBLXwUW
— ESPN (@espn) March 9, 2017
Brown and the Celtics had the last laugh as they ran away from Golden State in the fourth quarter, and after the game Brown told ESPN Boston’s Chris Forsberg that he didn’t know what prompted Curry’s taunting after the buzzer-beater.
“I didn’t say nothing to him,” said Brown. “I was just playing defense. He hit a good shot. [The pointing] was cute. And he just made a good shot. I didn’t say a word. I was just playing defense. I guess it was good D, and I guess that was the talk he was talking. I don’t know. I didn’t say nothing.”
Most, including Brown’s teammate Isaiah Thomas, assumed that this was Steph lashing out after getting some trash talk from the rookie, but Brown insists he didn’t say anything to Curry. Brown’s theory was that “they needed that energy to get them going,” which can sometimes happen, but Curry is rarely the type to direct trash talk directly at a player (he usually shimmies to the crowd or something).
No matter what actually happened, if the Celtics were to somehow get past the Cavs in the Eastern Conference and meet the Warriors in the Finals, we at least have one alternate storyline to watch for.
