Celtics’ Jaylen Brown reveals only major regret after losing Game 7 to 76ers

Boston Celtics All-Star Jaylen Brown reacted to head coach Joe Mazzulla’s surprising approach to Game 7 against the Philadelphia 76ers. Without Jayson Tatum, Mazzulla started Baylor Scheierman and benched Neemias Queta and Payton Pritchard for Luka Garza and Ron Harper Jr., who spent most of the season in the G League. The Celtics’ head coach had given guys opportunities in the regular season but kept a tight rotation in the weeks leading into the playoffs.

However, with the season on the line, Mazzulla called an audible, a decision Brown wished had been made at the start of the postseason

“I wish we played that style and trusted that style more, even throughout the playoffs, even through wins and through losses,” Brown said. “Obviously, it’s not always the easiest decision, but I wish. That style for our team was how we empowered the rest of our group, and you saw tonight how everybody came out and played their tail off. I wish we trusted that more.”

For Brown, who led the Celtics to the second-best record in the Eastern Conference, a feat no one predicted for a Jayson Tatum-less squad, he’ll never forget the 2025-26 season.

“This is probably one of my most fun years playing basketball,” Brown said. “It wasn’t always perfect. It wasn’t always analytically (or) aesthetically pleasing, but we won a lot of basketball games, and people could see the grit and the fight that we played with every single night. And tonight was an example of that.

“We left it all out there. We played five small guys, we played a rookie, we played whatever. And we scrapped all the way to the end. Just came up a couple, a few plays short.”

The Celtics finished 2-for-8 down the stretch of a 109-100 series-clinching loss to the 76ers.

Jaylen Brown takes a shot at Joel Embiid after Celtics Game 7 loss

Celtics All-Star Jaylen Brown accused 76ers’ Joel Embiid of flopping throughout the first-round series. Brown explained how Embiid’s return changed the complexion of the Celtics’ best-of-7 series.

“It was tough. Embiid put a lot of pressure on us, on all of our bigs and our guards,” Brown said. “We didn’t really have an answer for him. We tried a bunch of different things. He’s a big body, and he also was flopping around and got some extra calls and stuff like that, and they rewarded him for that. But you know, that’s the league that we’re in. I mean, that’s all I got to say.”

"He's a big body. He also was flopping around. He got some extra calls and stuff like that and they rewarded him for that. But that's the league that we're in"

Jaylen Brown on Joel Embiid pic.twitter.com/JLLTrdVrV3

— ClutchPoints (@ClutchPoints) May 3, 2026

Brown finished with 33 points, nine rebounds, four assists, and three blocks.

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