Jeff Teague did not side with Jaylen Brown after the Boston Celtics star called out Joel Embiid for flopping.
The former Celtics guard, who was teammates with Brown during the 2020-21 season, said on the Rich Eisen Show that Brown’s frustration sounded more like bitterness after Boston’s season-ending loss to the Philadelphia 76ers.
“I’m going to say Jaylen Brown’s a good guy. I enjoy it, but I think that’s a sore loser,” Teague said, according to the audio transcription. “You had three games. You were up 3-1. You had enough opportunity to win a game and take over.”
Brown’s comments came after the Celtics lost Game 7 to the 76ers, 109-100, at TD Garden. Boston became the first team in Celtics franchise history to lose a playoff series after leading 3-1, and Philadelphia won a postseason series against Boston for the first time since 1982, according to NBC Sports Boston.
(via @richeisenshow)
Jeff Teague Didn’t Hold Back on Jaylen Brown
Brown’s issue was not that Embiid played poorly. It was the way Brown believed Embiid generated some of his offense.
After the loss, Brown credited Embiid’s impact but accused him of foul-baiting. Brown told reporters that Embiid “put a lot of pressure” on Boston’s bigs and guards, adding that the Celtics “didn’t really have an answer for him.” Brown then said Embiid was “flopping around” and getting rewarded with extra calls, according to CBS Sports.
Brown later expanded on that point during a Twitch stream. Boston.com’s Khari Thompson reported that Brown said, “Flopping has ruined our game,” while still calling Embiid “one of the best bigs in basketball history.”
Teague was not buying that as the main takeaway from the series.
“Embiid was playing well,” Teague said. “He flopped. He been doing it forever. He’s been getting foul bait and doing that forever his whole career. I think he was just a little bitter about the loss.”
That is the part that makes Teague’s response sting. He was not arguing that Embiid never sells contact. He was arguing that Brown and the Celtics had already known that going into the series, and still had multiple chances to close it.
Teague’s criticism also matters because it is not coming from a random outside voice. He shared a locker room with Brown in Boston, and his comments frame the issue less as an officiating debate and more as a failure by the Celtics to finish a series they controlled.
Celtics-76ers Came Down to a Game 7
The Game 7 context makes Brown’s frustration understandable, even if Teague disagreed with how he expressed it.
Boston played without Jayson Tatum, who was ruled out two hours before tipoff with left knee stiffness. Brown led the Celtics with 33 points and nine rebounds, while Derrick White added 26 points. But Boston shot just 13-for-49 from 3-point range, missed 10 straight shots in the final five minutes and could not complete a fourth-quarter comeback after cutting the deficit to one.
Embiid finished with 34 points, 12 rebounds and six assists, while Tyrese Maxey added 30 points, 11 rebounds and seven assists. CBS Sports noted that Philadelphia became the 14th team in NBA history to win a playoff series after trailing 3-1.
That is why Brown’s comments carried beyond a normal postgame complaint. The Celtics were not eliminated in a one-game coin flip. They had three chances to close out the series and lost all three.
Philadelphia also had its own historic baggage. NBC Sports Philadelphia reported that the 76ers had not won a road Game 7 since 1982 and had not won any Game 7 since 2001 before stunning the Celtics in Boston.
Brown’s point about officiating may still resonate with Celtics fans who watched Embiid spend the series hunting contact. But Teague’s counterpoint is the harsher reality Boston now has to sit with: the Celtics were up 3-1, had home court for Game 7 and still let the series slip away.
Brown’s comments kept the officiating conversation alive. Teague’s response shifted the spotlight back to Boston’s missed opportunity.
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