Nuggets guard Bones Hyland, right, drives into Boston Celtics guard Jaylen Brown in the second half of Sunday night’s game in Denver. David Zalubowski/Associated Press
Bones Hyland was having his way with the Boston Celtics for much of the second half of the Denver Nuggets’ 123-111 win on Sunday night. Jaylen Brown decided to do something about it in the fourth quarter.
Brown picked up Hyland, who scored 17 points off the bench, in the half court defensively and started clapping at Hyland, who was setting up for a drive. The two players quickly got tangled up and Brown was called for a personal foul.
After the whistle, Hyland pushed Brown to the ground and Brown responded by getting in the Nuggets guard’s face after getting back to his feet. The two players were immediately separated by teammates and officials and were given technical fouls before shaking hands.
Brown tried to give perspective about the run-in after the game while giving kudos to Hyland.
“Nothing really,” Brown told reporters in Denver when asked about what led to the run-in with Hyland. “I just think their second unit was playing well, just comfortable. So I tried to pick up a little bit, increase my physicality and intensity. Just two guys competing. Bones is a good young player. He came out and had a really good game tonight off the bench. He affected them with 17 points off the bench. That was huge for them. For me, I was trying to pick up the intensity of the game. It was just two guys being competitive, wasn’t no smoke behind it.”
Hyland tried to similarly back off the situation after the game, saying the sequence was simply a basketball play and nothing more.
“I got love and respect for Jaylen Brown,” Hyland told reporters.
Brown was one of the few bright spots for the Celtics with a team-high 30 points. The 6-foot-7 wing did take note of the trash talking Hyland and some of his teammates were doing throughout the win, the first for Denver against the Celtics since 2020.
“We don’t get to play them again, so that’s good for them,” Brown said.
BIZARRE DELAY: Interim coach Joe Mazzulla was back on the Celtics bench for the first time in three games Sunday night when he was a witness to one of the most bizarre sequences in an NBA game this season.
Mazzulla and the Celtics watched and waited helplessly for nearly 40 minutes in the fourth quarter as arena workers attempted to repair a crooked rim following a Robert Williams III dunk early in the period.
Ultimately, a new rim was brought out and attached but both teams were left trying to stay fresh and loose amid the unprecedented mid-game delay during which game officials sought minimal guidance from both sides.
“The rim was crooked and they told us if they got to a certain amount of time, there would be a rewarm-up period,” Mazzulla said. “Once they got to the time, they asked us how many minutes we thought we needed.”
The Celtics and Nuggets were only given about three-minutes to warm up on the court once the basket was fixed and that did not help the Celtics’ attempts at rallying from a 13-point deficit..
Mazzulla did not think the delay had an impact on Boston’s play but Brown was not pleased with how the situation was handled and acknowledged the impact on Boston’s performance.
“It was definitely a weird game,” Brown said. “The delay was longer than I thought it would be. That definitely kind of took our momentum a little bit when we were trying to get it going but you have to give credit to Denver for playing well.”
The Celtics will be back in action for the second game of their road trip on Tuesday night in Oklahoma City.
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