Boston Celtics Small forward, Shooting guard Jaylen Brown break silence and calls out Hornets’ Williams for foul on Tatum

On Friday night, the Boston Celtics beat the Charlotte Hornets 124–109, and Jaylen Brown scored 25 points. But he saved his best shots for after the game.

Former partner Grant Williams slammed into Jayson Tatum from the side while Tatum was dribbling near half court late in the fourth quarter, which made the star guard angry. Tatum splattered on the ground. He then yelled at Williams and the Hornets bench.

Tatum got to his feet and looked angry, but he didn’t do anything else while the officials looked over the play. He just walked toward the foul line. Williams was kicked out of the game for a major foul 2, and the league could punish him.

If you asked Brown if he thought Williams’ foul was accidental, he didn’t think twice about it.

“What are we talking about?” Were you all at the same play I was?” A reporter in Charlotte heard Brown say this. “He hit him hard, like it was a quarterback pass.” Possibly Ray Lewis crossing the middle. Whatever it is, it is. I’m sure Grant knows better than that.

Brown said a mistake like that has no place in the NBA and asked Williams, who played with him and Tatum in Boston from 2019 to 2023, why he would do it.

“I thought JT and Grant was friends. … I guess not,” said Brown.

Williams said it was a hard foul, but it wasn’t done on purpose.

“Don’t mean to hurt anyone.” Williams told NBC Sports Boston, “That’s one of my best friends in the league.”

“I know JB is trying to protect his teammate, but he kind of made things worse.” That is, however, my dog Tatum. There was no reason for me to be mean to him; I had his back.

Tatum didn’t want to talk to the media after the game, even though he scored 32 points.

Joe Mazzulla, the Celtics coach, wouldn’t say anything bad about Williams.

He told Tatum, “I’m glad that everything is okay.” “I enjoyed that he jumped up and didn’t just lay there.” His reaction wasn’t scared. Immediately, he got up, went to the free throw line, and made it.

The game didn’t get better after Tatum was called for a foul either. Later, LaMelo Ball fouled the Celtics star while he was trying to make a 3-point shot and got a flagrant for a dangerous play. Hurnets forward Miles Bridges was thrown out in the last few seconds.

“Teams like to send messages and try to set the tone and do all different type of stuff to try to either get us out of character or mess with our mind or make us feel like we solved or whatever the case is,” said Brown. We are not interested in any of that. Simply put, we’re not. We’re not going at all.

They won’t have to wait long to play each other. They play again on Saturday night, but this time it’s actually in Boston.