Jaylen Brown Says Celtics Should Take 4th Quarter vs. Jazz 'F--king' Personally

Boston Celtics star Jaylen Brown thought his team's fourth-quarter performance fell woefully short in Tuesday's 122-108 loss to the Utah Jazz. 

The Jazz put an exclamation point on the game with a pair of three-pointers from Donovan Mitchell and two alley-oops from Rudy Gobert.

After the game, Brown told reporters the Celtics "f--king should take it personally" with regard to Utah's 32-point quarter, which he described as "embarrassing."

Brown finished with 33 points and eight rebounds after having missed Boston's last two games. He told reporters his left knee started giving him some problems in the third quarter.

The 24-year-old's postgame comments could speak to a larger underlying frustration with how the team is playing this season. 

The Celtics sit fourth in the Eastern Conference at 12-11, five games back of the first-place Philadelphia 76ers. In general, they seem well off the level needed to dethrone the reigning champion Los Angeles Lakers.

Closing out games has been a major struggle as well. Boston has a minus-9.6 net rating in the fourth quarter, second-worst in the league, per NBA.com.

With regard to Tuesday, Brown and his teammates were probably fatigued from a five-game road trip that began Feb. 2. The Celtics have five of their next six games at home, and the one away game is a relatively short trip to play the Washington Wizards.

The nine-day stretch could allow for Boston to reset a bit before its final charge into the All-Star break.