In the weeks leading up to the first Celtics-Sixers matchup of the season, Jaylen Brown had been hyping up the reunion. But just six minutes into Tuesday night’s game, his long-awaited rivalry debut began to unravel.
Brown admitted it himself after Philadelphia’s 123-101 loss to Boston, acknowledging he and his Sixers teammates didn’t do enough to match up to the Celtics during the marquee matchup.
“I’m a bit frustrated, honestly,” Brown told reporters, per CLNS Media. “I wanted to perform better for my
team. Foul trouble kind of derailed me a little bit, but it happens. It’s unfortunate. But now we gotta just move on to the next.”
Brown established himself as the aggressor from the jump. He nailed Jordan Walsh’s throat before flushing a two-handed dunk, bulldozed Derrick White and was called for an offensive foul, then intercepted a pass intended for Jayson Tatum. He also missed his first two shot attempts and picked up two fouls before checking out with 5:33 remaining in the first quarter.
In his first attempt to attack Tatum, Brown pump-faked a three, dribbled into a spin move and lost control of the ball, sending it out of bounds. Paul George and Neemias Queta followed Tatum’s lead, pointing toward the other end of the floor in reaction to Brown’s turnover.
Brown was forced to Philadelphia’s bench, where he watched the Sixers struggle to keep pace.
Boston’s bread-and-butter — 3-point shooting — came in handy throughout the night, and it began early. In the first quarter, the Celtics nailed four of their first 11 threes while the Sixers only converted one of their first seven attempts. The disparity carried over into the ensuing quarters, as both teams continued firing.
Brown, usually an above-average, reliable 3-point shooter, went just 1-for-4 himself. He played just over 25 minutes, well below his 35:48 average and his lowest total of the season so far. Brown’s four personal fouls, three of which were accumulated by halftime, forced Sixers head coach Nick Nurse to play him less than four minutes in the third quarter.
Crucial minutes in which Brown could’ve used to turn the tide were wasted as he battled foul trouble.
He turned in an underwhelming performance by his standards, as Brown finished with a season-low 13 points along with five rebounds, two assists, two steals and a block. On Sunday, he told reporters in Philadelphia he had nothing else to tell Tatum or the Celtics except “check the ball up.” And on Tuesday, Brown was overshadowed by Tatum’s second-career poster dunk over LeBron James and George’s 36-point outburst.
Needless to say, things didn’t go as planned, which left Brown with no choice but to tip his cap to his adversaries.
“Credit to Jayson. He played well tonight,” Brown said. “Credit to the Celtics. They executed. They shot the hell out of the ball, and they were the better team tonight.”
Brown helped stir the pot moments before tipoff. As both teams greeted each other at center court, Tatum approached Brown and gave him a friendly, one-handed pat on the chest. Brown, meanwhile, spun the game ball on his finger without even acknowledging Tatum’s presence — a moment reminiscent of Kevin Garnett and Ray Allen’s icy exchange in 2012.
It seemed clear Brown had no interest in dapping up Tatum.
His explanation?
“To be honest, I wasn’t paying attention,” Brown responded.
Once the game ended, Brown continued to keep his distance from Tatum. He shook hands with nearly every Celtics player before heading back to Philadelphia’s locker room, once again leaving his former co-star out of the postgame exchanges.
For those keeping track at home, that’s twice Brown ghosted Tatum on the court (three times if you include their preseason warm-up session at TD Garden on Oct. 10).
And for the Celtics, their trip to the City of Brotherly Love was a success.
They checked all the boxes needed. All the boxes they could’ve hoped to check.
Tatum and George combined for 57 points. Boston responded to Philadelphia’s game-tying 20-7 run with a 12-2 spurt that carried into the fourth quarter. And Payton Pritchard also caught fire, giving the Celtics 18 points off the bench, while knocking down four consecutive 3-pointers in the second half to fuel the team’s runaway victory.
For Brown, even 10 seasons spent with the Celtics, including years alongside many of the team’s current players, couldn’t provide much of an advantage.
Brown dismissed the idea that familiarity with Boston’s personnel made any difference.
“Does it make it easier? No. It’s basketball at the end of the day,” Brown said. “It’s five-on-five. You gotta come out and execute, and they were better than us tonight. They executed better than us tonight, and they outplayed us. So that’s on us. We gotta improve. They’re one of the top teams in the league, and they’ve been together for a while, so we got a lot to work on over here. So we gotta get to work.”
The Celtics leaped over the Sixers as the No. 1 seed in the Eastern Conference on Tuesday night.
The high-intensity, playoff-like duel between Brown and Tatum never materialized. Instead, Brown and the Sixers were forced to settle for a classic Boston beatdown, similar to the many Brown experienced plenty of times throughout his decade spent with Tatum by his side.
Philadelphia got outclassed. They allowed George to score more points than any opposing player has scored against them, dropped to 21st in the league in 3-point percentage by shooting 29.7 percent against Boston, and gave Sixers legend Allen Iverson, who sat in attendance, little to celebrate.
When George drained his game-leading sixth 3-pointer of the night to put the Celtics ahead 111-87 and force a Sixers timeout, Joel Embiid hung his head and grabbed his hair in disbelief.
At that moment, everyone in the building knew that was all she wrote.
Brown only needed three words for his blunt, honest assessment.
“Tonight was humbling,” Brown said. “We got outplayed, outexecuted. So we go back to the drawing board and get ready for the next one.”
For the Celtics, Sixers, Brown and Tatum, the next one won’t be until their Jan. 21 rematch at TD Garden.
