Jaylen Brown and his highly anticipated reunion with Jayson Tatum didn’t go to plan, after enduring a frustrating night in a 123-101 loss to his former team.
The tension was evident before Tuesday’s game even began, when Tatum approached Brown at midcourt to greet his former teammate.
He appeared to ignore the gesture, even as Tatum tapped him on the chest before moving on to greet LeBron James.
He brushed aside questions about the awkward pregame interaction.
“I’m just focused on doing what’s best for my team,” Brown said after the game. “Everything else was just, to be honest, I wasn’t paying attention, but credit to Jayson; he played well tonight.”
Brown finished with just 13 points, 5 rebounds and 4 turnovers, recording a game-worst minus-27 as Boston cruised to victory.
“I was looking forward to this,” Brown said. “I was looking forward to playing well, but s— happens. Get ready for the next one, I guess.”
The 76ers forward struggled with foul trouble throughout the contest, picking up two early fouls before collecting his fourth shortly after halftime.
“He had a tough night,” Philadelphia coach Nick Nurse said.
“I’m a bit frustrated, honestly,” Brown admitted.
Despite the attention surrounding his reunion with Tatum, Brown insisted his disappointing performance had nothing to do with emotions.
“I didn’t have any emotion. I was locked in. I was focused, I was ready to go,” Brown said. “Foul trouble kind of took me out of my rhythm a little bit. I had to sit for a while, and we didn’t execute as well as they did.”
Tatum was equally reluctant to fuel the storyline.
“No headlines about anything like that,” Tatum said. “I was just getting ready for the game, ready for jump ball, go out there, compete, have some fun and try to get a win.”
READ MORE: Yaxel Lendeborg on Why Steph Curry’s Conditioning Is on Another Level