Getty Image
It’s hard to resist the urge to blame the refs for costing your team a game when things don’t go your way even if you can point to other factors that led to a loss. With that said, it’s hard to blame Jaylen Brown and the Celtics for thinking they were robbed thanks to what unfolded at the end of their showdown with the Pacers.
NBA refs are far from the only officials with a fairly lackluster reputation, but the fact that one of them was actually sent to prison for fixing games means it’s a bit easier to buy into conspiracy theories concerning situations where they’ve blatantly inserted themselves into a contest.
That ended up being the case when the Indiana Pacers hosted the Boston Celtics on Monday night for a back-and-forth contest that came down to the final seconds.
The score was knotted at 131 apiece when Buddy Hield was called for a foul on Jaylen Brown with around three seconds to go in the fourth quarter, and the video clearly showed the former had struck the latter in the head with his arm while attempting to defend a jumper.
I'm unaware of a situation where illegal contact to the head can be ignored if the defender touches the ball first. That said, the contact with the ball & the head occurs simultaneously. The foul was reviewed and overturned- one of the worst successful challenges I've seen pic.twitter.com/3sgUr7vpFY
— BBALLBREAKDOWN (@bballbreakdown) January 9, 2024
However, the Pacers opted to challenge the call, which was somehow overturned before Bennedict Mathurin drew a foul with .6 seconds remaining and sank a couple of free throws to give his team the 133-131 victory.
Brown was understandably displeased with how that final sequence unfolded, and after the game, he called on the NBA to investigate the decision in question, saying:
“It doesn’t make any sense to me. I went up and asked [the ref] ‘Did I get hit in the head?’ and he looks at me straight in the face and says, ‘No, you didn’t get hit in the head…’
That cost our team the game and you expect us not to be frustrated. We’re trying to build great habits, we’re trying to win as many games as possible, and we just dropped one because of that. I feel like we’ve got the right to be upset and the league should understand.
Of course we’re going to say something about it after the game, so I don’t think there should be any fines, but I definitely think that one should be investigated.”
While it’s a bit hard to imagine Brown will avoid a fine for his pointed criticism of the refs, it’s worth noting Celtics coach Joe Mazzulla said Hield confirmed what the replay clearly showed during a conversation with the guard after the contest.
It’s doubtful Boston is going to get any sort of justice, but it’s pretty clear the league’s officials need to step their game up.