NBA Pool Report Gives Referee Side Of Celtics Rash Of Technical Fouls Vs. Bulls

The Boston Celtics had a bone to pick with referee Justin Van Duyne in the fourth quarter of their 117-108 loss to the Chicago Bulls at TD Garden.

First up was Joe Mazzulla followed by Jaylen Brown and Jayson Tatum. The result was the same each time as all three were assessed with a technical foul. Mazzulla and Brown’s tech came with 5:12 left in the fourth quarter while Tatum picked up his two minutes later.

Brown and Tatum clearly disagreed with the calls with Brown sounding off on the officiating after the game.

“What part of the game is a ref calling inadvertent technical foul (on Mazzulla)?” Brown told reporters, per WEEI’s Justin Turpin. “And then like, I said to him, ‘You called a tech for no reason.’ He said, ‘If you say it to me again, I’m going to call another tech.’ (I said again), ‘You called a tech for no reason.’ And then he called a tech. Like, man, get out of here. You can’t threaten guys with a technical foul. That’s not part of the game, either.”

The referees gave their side of the story following the contest when crew chief Tony Brothers was asked about the incidents in a pool report.

Here is the full transcript of Brothers’ exchange with Adam Himmelsbach of The Boston Globe:

Question: What did Joe Mazzulla do that warranted the technical foul?

Brothers: He was out of the coach’s box and on the floor.

Question: So, it wasn’t anything he said?

Brothers: No, it wasn’t.

Question: What did Jaylen Brown do to warrant the technical foul?

Brothers: He questioned our integrity multiple times during that same sequence.

Question: What did Jayson Tatum do to warrant his technical foul?

Brothers: Tatum received a respect for the game technical for an overt action towards an official.

The technical fouls on Mazzulla and Brown helped the Bulls turn a three-point advantage into an eight-point lead. The Celtics never got the deficit back to a single possession after that.

The Celtics will get another shot at the Bulls when the two teams clash in Chicago on Saturday night. Tipoff from United Center is scheduled for 8 p.m. ET.