The newest chapter in Giannis Antetokounmpo vs. Jaylen Brown ‘rivalry’

All of us bought to witness a brand new installment of the Jaylen Brown/Giannis Antetokoumpo rivalry on Friday night time. Early within the second half of the Boston Celtics’ 111-105 win over the Milwaukee Bucks, Brown took Antetokounmpo proper to the bucket, hit him with a “too small” celebration, after which took an elbow to the face.

The 2 started to travel as they made their manner up the ground earlier than JB was finally assessed a technical foul. This change couldn’t have come at a extra opportune time for the Cs. They’d simply wrapped up a second quarter the place they’d shot 0-12 from past the arc and had carried these offensive struggles over into the second half.

After which for the following 22-or-so minutes, Boston outscored Milwaukee by 10 en path to a powerful victory. It was an evening the place their typical high-powered offense wasn’t the driving drive behind the Cs’ success. They solely sank 32% of their 53 long-range makes an attempt, a staple of their typical recreation plan.

As an alternative, they leaned into the physicality and introduced an unimaginable effort on the defensive facet of the ball proper from the opening tip. Brown set the tone early, when he almost pressured an eight-second violation in opposition to Damian Lillard. Dame made it over half-court, however stumbled and misplaced the ball.

That depth took on an additional edge after the Brown/Antetokounmpo change.

“Yeah, simply that proper there, simply utilizing, whether or not it’s our opponents, utilizing the refs, utilizing the followers, utilizing individuals close to you, to simply manipulate that,” mentioned Joe Mazzulla of manipulating totally different elements of the sport to achieve a bonus. “So, I believed that was nice. I believed the elbow to the face type of unlocked Jaylen just a little bit. I believed the technical was super by Jaylen. And I believed from there on out, it simply introduced out an edge in us, and we have been in a position to feed off that. So simply grateful for, you already know, for all these issues that type of, you already know, introduced the sting out of us.”

Friday wasn’t the primary time this season we’ve seen the Celtics acquire an edge after a second like this. Simply final month, Brown and Antetokounmpo had an identical flash of bodily play. Giannis caught JB with an elbow whereas making an attempt to attain out of the submit, then seconds later jokingly (perhaps not jokingly?) faked a handshake earlier than pulling his hand away from the Finals MVP.

After Boston finalized the win, Brown advised the media that he was simply targeted on getting the win and that the Greek Freak was a toddler.

Quick ahead to later that week, and Nike, a sponsor of Antetokounmpo, seemingly subtweeted Brown, who had had his personal back-and-forth with the swoosh over the summer season, after a 59-point recreation from the Bucks star.

It’s unlikely that Giannis would’ve had something to do with that, nevertheless it actually provides to the lore, doesn’t it?

Now that the Cs have swept the season collection 3-0 with the Bucks, it looks like Jaylen is the one with the final giggle anyway.