PHILADELPHIA -- Tuesday's matchup between the Philadelphia 76ers and the Boston Celtics was circled the moment the schedule was announced way back in August. For obvious reasons, it was a big matchup that featured Jaylen Brown facing Jayson Tatum and the Celtics for the first time after 10 years in Boston and the return of Paul George after two seasons in Philadelphia.
The leadup to the matchup was then heightened when Tatum and Brown had a back-and-forth in the media with Brown admitting there's no beef between the two of them, but he then used the famed lamb chops and gravy line to describe the relationship between the two of them.
In the first matchup of the season, Brown fell short as he finished with 13 points, four fouls, four turnovers,
and was a minus-27 in 25 minutes as the Celtics cruised to a 123-101 win.
"Yeah, got into some early foul trouble, but no excuse," Brown said afterward. "I think we got outplayed tonight. They executed, shot the hell out of the ball."
As far as Tatum is concerned, he did try and greet Brown before tipoff, but Brown appeared to ignore him a bit. Obviously, a lot has been said between the two of them recently so maybe that could have been a factor, but Brown was adamant that his focus was on the task at hand which was to perform for the Sixers.
"I'm just focused on coming out and doing what's best for my team," Brown said of the moment with Tatum. "Everything else was just—to be honest, I wasn't paying attention. But credit to Jayson. He played well tonight. Credit to the Celtics, they executed, shot the hell out of the ball, and they were the better team tonight."
Jaylen Brown and Jayson Tatum before tipoff.
— NBA on ESPN (@ESPNNBA) November 11, 2026
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When considering all of the outside noise, one has to believe Brown is relieved in a way to get this one over with and put it behind him. This stuff happens over the course of an 82-game season. Brown didn't play well. It happens. Now, the focus is to move on to another tough matchup on Thursday.
"I guess you could say that," Brown said of the notion of moving on. "I'm a bit frustrated, honestly. I wanted to perform better for my team. Foul trouble kind of derailed me a little bit, but you know, it happens. It's unfortunate, but now we got to—let's move on to the next."
This was an emotional game. It just comes with the territory of the NBA when players are switching teams and being traded from one team to another and there's free agency and so on and so forth. Brown stated afterward that he wasn't emotional at all, but the 11-year veteran could just be putting on a brave face. It's just human nature to be emotional and have thoughts about these types of situations.
"I didn’t have any emotion," Brown finished. "I was locked in. I was focused. I was ready to go, and foul trouble kind of took me out of my rhythm a little bit. I had to sit for a while, and you know, just didn't—We didn't execute as well as they did. That was the story of the game. Even when I did get back, they had a good game plan. So, yeah, give credit to them. Give credit to Boston. Well coached, they executed well, and they shot the hell out of the ball. Put a lot of pressure on us."
The Sixers will now move on to host the Toronto Raptors on Thursday.
This article originally appeared on Sixers Wire: Sixers' Jaylen Brown reacts to 1st matchup with Jayson Tatum, Celtics
