With the Celtics holding an 11-point lead against the Kings, Jaylen Brown picked up his sixth foul with 2:09 left in the fourth quarter. It was looking like the C’s would need to close out the victory without their best player. But occasionally, teams challenge that sixth foul call just to see if they can keep their star on the court. That’s what the Celtics did.
Turns out, C’s coach Joe Mazzulla had another motive to initiate the challenge: listen to referee Billy Kennedy on the ensuing call. Slowly but surely, it’s starting to spread around the NBA that Kennedy has entertaining calls to announce whether a challenge was successful or not.
“Really just kind of wanted to hear Billy Kennedy,” Mazzulla said after the Celtics beat the Kings, via the NBC Sports Boston broadcast. “He does a great challenge. We were going to do that anyway just to kind of hear him deliver the challenge.”
The foul call was unsuccessful, so Brown was sent off to the bench after posting 29 points and 10 rebounds on the night. He had a tough shooting night, going 1-for-9 on 3-pointers, but the All-Star was still effective to lead the Celtics in scoring.
Kennedy’s call Thursday actually wasn’t as amusing as the other night, when he was on assignment for the Celtics’ win over the Pacers on Dec. 26. That game had multiple challenges and Kennedy had a notably great call. Here’s another look at it with Kennedy going in-depth with the explanation for the unsuccessful challenge.
It sounds like Kennedy’s calls are gaining some traction across the league. They’re also fun and break up the monotony of a long 82-game season. The NBC Sports Boston broadcast duo of Drew Carter and Brian Scalabrine have also enjoyed the Kennedy calls like during the Pacers game.
The Celtics beat the Kings even without Brown for the final couple minutes of the game Thursday. They outscored Sacramento 32-18 in the fourth quarter, pulling away in what was a close game for the majority of the night. The C’s are now 3-1 on their five-game road trip. They’ll look to beat the Clippers at 10:30 p.m. Saturday in Los Angeles.