Jaylen Brown

On Saturday night, the Boston Celtics ended the Los Angeles Lakers’ eight-game winning streak with a 111-101 victory at TD Garden in Boston, Massachusetts. Following the Lakers’ blockbuster acquisition of five-time All-NBA first-teamer Luka Dončić on February 2, the second of two meetings between the heated rivals became easily the most anticipated regular season game of the 2024-2025 season.

The ticket prices proved it. According the ticket reseller app TickPick, the rivalry showdown was the most expensive Celtics home game ever recorded. The average ticket price to attend the game at the 19,580-seat TD Garden came in at $731, with high-end courtside seats going for a staggering $23,112. That’s more than the cost of six months rent for an average Boston apartment.

Ratings for the Saturday night telecast on ABC were also the highest of the season for any NBA game not played on Christmas Day.

In fact, with 3.69 million viewers, the Celtics-Lakers clash was the highest-rated NBA regular season game since January 31, 2020 when the Lakers faced the Portland Trail Blazers in the first Lakers game since the untimely passing in a helicopter accident of Lakers legend Kobe Bryant five days earlier. That game drew 4.41 million.

Jaylen Brown Excelled on Defense Against Luka Dončić

The teams earned the attention. Both came into the game holding the second seeds in their respective conferences. Since Dončić made his Lakers debut on February 10, Los Angeles had won nine of 11 games. The Celtics were winners of four in a row and 14 of their previous 17.

In the game, Celtics star Jayson Tatum scored 40 points and his co-star Jaylen Brown poured in 31. But it was Brown’s defense against Dončić that drew much of the postgame focus. While Dončić as an offensive player is nearly impossible to shut down, Brown held him to 21 points on 9-22 shooting from the floor whole forcing the 25-year-old superstar to commit five turnovers.

Meanwhile, Dončić continued to struggle defensively against the Celtics.

When Brown was asked in his postgame press conference how he was able to turn in high-level performances on both offense and defense, the 28-year-old who was drafted with the third overall pick by the Celtics in 2016 responded with a seven-word message that very much appeared to be subtweet of Dončić, in other words, a subtle shot, without naming the target.

“You got to be in incredible shape.”

Brown Appeared to Take Jab at Dončić’s Conditioning

“Lol shots fired at Luka,” wrote one commenter on the social media app X (formerly Twitter).

“Definitely a petty shot at Luka and I love it,” another posted.

“He really hates Luka LMAOOOOO,” said another commenter on the social media site.

Dončić’s allegedly lax approach to physical conditioning has been discussed in the NBA for several years, and reportedly played a role in the Dallas Mavericks’ decision to trade him to the Lakers for Anthony Davis. In fact, in one reported instance earlier this season, the Mavericks benched Dončić for five games on the pretext of a “right wrist sprain,” when in fact they insisted Dončić use the time off to improve his physical conditioning.

In the same press conference on Saturday, Brown also went out of his way to praise Dončić, calling him “one of the greats” and “one of those generational talents.” But even in that statement, Brown called Dončić “one of my favorite players on that side of the ball.”

“That side of the ball” being the offensive side, meaning that Brown specifically excluded Dončić’s defense from his praise for the Slovenia-born five-time All-Star.