Jaylen Brown rips former teammate after controversial foul in Hornet win

Jaylen Brown was the victim of a hard foul from Grant Williams last season in his first game against his former teammate. A year later, he didn’t hold back when asked about Williams hitting Jayson Tatum with a blatant double-foul that led to his ejection in the fourth quarter of the Celtics’ 124-109 win over the Hornets on Friday night.

“I don’t know what that was about,” Brown told reporters in Charlotte. “I think that spoke for itself. I don’t know if Grant missed JT or I don’t know what that was, but it wasn’t a basketball player. Grant knows better than that.’

Williams tried to defend his mistake after the game, noting that he didn’t purposefully want to hurt Tatum in the sequence with 2:02 left in the fourth quarter. The game was originally called Plain Bug, but was upgraded to Blatant 2 after a video review.

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“It was a transition opportunity and I tried to play the ball,” Williams said, via CLNS Media. “I reached over his body. If you slow down the repetition, it’s like I’m playing the piece and I’m just trying to get after it. JT is one of my best friends in the league. It’s not intentional.”

Brown didn’t believe that explanation after the game.

“It was definitely intentional,” Brown stated. “What are we talking about? Are you all seeing the same play? He hit him like it was a football game, like Ray Lewis coming up the middle or something. It is what it is. Grant knows better than that.’

Brown was one of the most vocal Celtics after the foul sequence and had to be restrained when he yelled at Williams as assistant Tony Dobbins escorted him back to the bench.

“It’s just us against the world,” Brown told reporters of his mentality. “So as a leader, I drive for all my guys in the locker room. And teams like to send messages and try to set the tone and do all kinds of different things to try to take us out of character or mess with our minds or make us feel like we’re soft or whatever the case may be, ( and) we’re not going for that.”

The Celtics will get a chance for revenge on Saturday night against Williams and the Hornets in a rematch at the Spectrum Center.

“Actions speak loudly, so it is what it is,” Brown said. “We have won, we will move on, but there is no place for that in the game. I thought JT and Grant were friends. I don’t think so.”