Boston Celtics star Jaylen Brown on Sunday criticized officiating in the team’s first-round loss to Philadelphia and also pointed at 76ers center Joel Embiid for flopping.

Brown spoke on the streaming platform Twitch on Sunday, a day after the second-seeded Celtics lost Game 7 at home to the seventh-seeded 76ers in the Eastern Conference playoffs. Boston played without injured star forward Jayson Tatum, but Brown found other reasons for the Celtics’ downfall as Philadelphia won the last three games in the best-of-seven series.

Embiid collected 34 points, 12 rebounds and six assists in the 76ers’ 109-100 victory on Saturday. The 7-foot, 270-pounder was 9 of 11 at the free-throw line. He used his big body to draw fouls and used some physical acting to get extra calls, Brown contended.

“I mean, this is my personal opinion on basketball,” Brown said. “Some of y’all might disagree, you know what I mean? But argue with your grandma. Flopping has ruined our game.

“Embiid is a great player, one of the best bigs in … basketball history, flops,” Brown continued. “He knows it. This ain’t breaking news.”

Brown acknowledged that he has been critical of officiating in the regular season, and he believes that carried over in how referees called the series, particularly in calling offensive fouls on him.

“Why are you targeting me? They clearly had an agenda,” he said. “Maybe because I spoke, I was critical of the refs in the regular season. So you know how they responded? ‘We’re gonna call every — you’re gonna lead the playoffs in offensive fouls.’ That was the response from the officiating crew.

“You could clearly tell,” he continued. “I’ve actually spoken to some refs and they said it was an agenda going into each game. ‘Any time Jaylen brings his arm up, just from reputation, just call it.’ “

Brown said that Paul George of the 76ers and Jalen Brunson of the New York Knicks, for example, make push-off moves with their off arm when driving with the ball to create space, but they don’t get called like he does for offensive fouls.

“It’s a basketball play, whether y’all believe it or not,” Brown said. “Everybody does that when you drive, especially if you’ve got bodies on you. But Philly took advantage of it, and they took advantage of the officiating. It cost us to some degree. I’ve been doing it all regular season, not a problem. Now, all of a sudden, it’s an offensive foul every time. Keep that same energy with everybody else. That’s all I’ve gotta say.”

Brown was whistled for 10 offensive fouls in the first round, more than twice as many as the next-highest player, according to reports. In the regular season, the Knicks’ Karl-Anthony Towns was called for 65 offensive fouls, with Brown second in the league at 40.

Brown, 29, is a five-time All-Star who won the NBA Finals Most Valuable Player Award when the Celtics captured the league championship in 2024.

He averaged career highs with 28.7 points and 5.1 assists and matched the mark with 6.9 rebounds per game in 71 regular-season games this season. Brown averaged 25.7 points, 3.3 assists and 5.7 rebounds in seven playoff games.

–Field Level Media

Look at who has crashed the second round of the NBA Playoffs – Joel Embiid. Figured there was no invite coming for the Philadelphia 76ers and their star center after he underwent an appendectomy at a really unfortunate time.

But Embiid returned for the final four games of the first-round series against the Boston Celtics and the 76ers won the last three contests to surprisingly claim the Eastern Conference series. So the heat waiting for Embiid was transferred to the Celtics, coach Joe Mazzulla and NBA Executive of the Year Brad Stevens for a horrifying collapse.

Philadelphia now looks to upend the New York Knicks on the Eastern side, beginning with Monday’s Game 1. The Minnesota Timberwolves and San Antonio Spurs also open a Western Conference series on Monday with Anthony Edwards (left knee) listed as questionable for Minnesota.

PHILADELPHIA 76ERS AT NEW YORK KNICKS

The much-maligned Embiid can hold his head high after the last three games as he also fought through his knee getting banged up in Game 7 while recording 34 points, 12 rebounds and six assists in the clinching 109-100 win in Boston. He averaged 28 points in the four games he played and the only question will be if he can play with this much juice in Game 1 against the Knicks after also banging up his right hip.

The Knicks defeated the Atlanta Hawks in six games in the first round and the clinching victory was a 140-89 beat down on Thursday, furthering the confidence of a team primed for a deep run. Guards Jalen Brunson (26.3 average vs. the Hawks) of the Knicks and Tyrese Maxey (26.9 vs. the Celtics) of the 76ers figure to put on a stellar show, similar to two seasons ago when New York took down the 76ers in six games in the first round.

New York finished the Atlanta series with victories by 16, 29 and 51 points after losing both Games 2 and 3 by one point. OG Anunoby had 29 points on 11-of-14 shooting in the decisive game and averaged 21.5 points and shot 61.1% from the field in the series. Anunoby (18-plus points, -103) was so hot that his second-lowest shooting percentage in the first round was 56.3.

The teams split four meetings in the regular season with the Knicks delivering a 138-89 whipping on Feb. 11 in Philadelphia. New York will send deluxe defensive big man Mitchell Robinson inside to slow Embiid (27-plus points, -106) so this might be a game where either Brunson (28-plus points, -112) or Maxey (25-plus points, -123) shines brightest.

Knicks minus 7.5-point spread, -108 (DraftKings)

MINNESOTA TIMBERWOLVES AT SAN ANTONIO SPURS

The Spurs cruised past the Portland Trail Blazers in five games in the first round and all four victories were by double digits. MVP candidate Victor Wembanyama, still just 22, returned from a concussion to average 22 points, 13 rebounds and 6.5 blocks over the final two games of the series.

Guards De’Aaron Fox (18-plus points, -114) and Stephon Castle (18-plus points, -104) are fine compliments to Wemby (30-plus points, +117) and big reasons why San Antonio’s win total is up to 66 this season. Fox averaged 20.2 points and 6.8 assists against Portland and Castle contributed 19.8 points and 6.0 assists.

Edwards missed the final two games of the six-game first-round series victory over the Denver Nuggets but is pushing hard to be on the floor Monday. What would really hurt Minnesota is if both Edwards and stellar reserve Ayo Dosunmu (calf) both miss the game. Dosunmu (18-plus points, -111) averaged a team-best 21.8 in the Denver series – led by his electric 43-point outing in Game 4 – before missing the finale.

Of course, Minnesota also lost Donte DiVincenzo (Achilles) in Game 4 so Julius Randle (21-plus points, -106) could be carrying the load and guys like Jaden McDaniels (18-plus points, -102) and reserve Naz Reid (13-plus points, -119) will need to step up. The Spurs have the upper hand to begin with but had lost five straight games to the Timberwolves before posting a 126-123 home win on Jan. 17.

Timberwolves plus 13.5-point spread, -115 (DraftKings)