Jaylen Brown is miffed at the NBA after controversial overturned foul

BOSTON -- Jaylen Brown is not happy with the NBA, and is letting everyone know it. The Celtics star voiced his frustration with the league and its officiating after a controversial overturned call that cost Boston a potential win over the Pacers on Monday night.

Brown was electric on Monday night. With Jayson Tatum sitting out to rest an ankle sprain, Brown scored a game-high 40 points for Boston off 17-for-26 shooting. And with the game tied 131-131 in the closing seconds, Brown had the ball in his hands with a chance to win it for Boston.

He drove and pulled up for a potential game-winning jumper, but was hit in the head by Buddy Hield with 3.2 seconds on the clock. A foul was called, and Brown was set to go to the line for a pair of free throws to put Boston on top.

At least, that was the initial call on the floor. The Pacers challenged, and after a review, the foul was shockingly overturned to a block. Crew chief James Williams explained that Hield hit the ball before making contact with Brown's head, so the call was overturned.

Brown and all of his Celtics teammates were varying degrees of stunned, confused, and furious. Some simple lip reading shows that Brown thought the call was baloney, though he used a different phrase that begins with the letter B.

And since the Pacers were about to take possession after Hield's "block," Indiana got possession of the ball. To rub some salt in that fresh wound, Bennedict Mathurin was fouled on a 3-point attempt on the other end of the floor (while the refs could have stayed out of this one, at least this call against Kristaps Porzingis was indeed a foul) and made two of his three freebies to lead Indy to a 133-131 victory. 

It's wild that a second-year guard on the Pacers received a more favorable call than the NBA's highest-paid player, but that's how it all played out Monday night. After the game, Brown did not hold back when voicing his frustration.

"I think he obviously hit me in the head. I think they definitely need to do some investigation, that's all I'm going to say. I think that was an obvious one. I've never heard of head, part of the ball. It doesn't make any sense to me," said Brown.

Brown said when he went up and asked officials if they saw that he got hit in the head, he was told that was not what happened.

"He looks me straight in the face and he says, 'No, you didn't get hit in the head.' I'm like, 'OK.' Then you come down on the other end, that cost our team the game," said Brown. "Then you expect us not to be frustrated. We're trying to build good habits. We're trying to win as many games as possible, and we just dropped one because of that."

Brown has every right to be upset, and said as much as he continued to bash the overturned call.

"Of course we're going to say something about it after the game. So I don't think there should be any fines," he said. "But I definitely think that one should be investigated."

Hield admitted to Celtics head coach Joe Mazzulla that he fouled Brown, though that didn't do Boston any good. Mazzulla said after the loss that he's looking forward to seeing what the NBA has to say about the overturn in the game's Last Two Minute Report, which will be released Tuesday afternoon.

Chances are the NBA will double down and say it was the right call. Like the NFL, the NBA doesn't like to admit when its officials got a call wrong -- especially after a video review.

UPDATE: The L2M report from the game said that officials got the overturned call correct, but ruled that Porzingis should not have been called for a foul. That will make Boston feel much better, we're sure.

While the overturn cost the Celtics a chance to win the game, it was far from the only reason that Boston lost on Monday night. The Celtics had a nine-point lead at halftime before they allowed the Pacers to go off for 44 points in the third quarter -- the most that Boston has allowed in any quarter this season. The C's also committed 15 turnovers that led to 20 points for the Pacers, and missed nine free throws throughout the game. They could have sent the game to overtime, but Porzingis was a little too aggressive on his defense against Mathurin. Boston contributed plenty to the loss.

All that being said, the Celtics still have every right to be mad at the controversial results of that challenge. Overturning the foul made no sense, and neither did the explanation from officials.