The Boston Celtics once again took care of business on the home floor on Thursday night. Thanks to a 37-point outing from Jaylen Brown, Boston was able to pick up a 127-112 win over the Phoenix Suns in their latest statement about how hard it’s going to be to beat them at TD Garden once the postseason rolls around.
Late in the game with the Celtics up by 18, Phoenix called a timeout while the ball was in Royce O’Neale’s hands. O’Neale — who didn’t make a three all game — decided to shoot before making his way to the bench, but his shot got contested by Boston coach Joe Mazzulla. It didn’t seem like O’Neale had a big problem with this, but as he explained on Inside the NBA, Charles Barkley was very much not a fan.
“I would’ve knocked the hell out of him, I’m not gonna lie,” Barkley said. “I would’ve hit him … I’ma tell you why I don’t like it. What if he stepped on his ankle and hurt himself badly. He can’t do that, come on, man.”
While Kenny Smith found the whole thing pretty funny, he agreed with Barkley’s sentiment that a coach can’t be doing this, which got Barkley to once again say that O’Neale should have “knocked the hell out of him.”
Mazzulla did explain himself after the game, telling the press that “I didn’t want him to feel good about himself going to the bench … one of the biggest pet peeves is thinking that a guy is just gonna get a free shot. That’s just not the way it works.”