Pacers furious after Jaylen Brown socks T.J. McConnell in face, refs say no flagrant

The Boston Celtics and Indiana Pacers were locked in a do-or-die battle in Game 4 of the Eastern Conference Finals on Monday night. So some hard fouls were to be expected. But T.J. McConnell certainly wasn't expecting a full-face smack from Jaylen Brown while he was airborne.

And fans and commentators around the league weren't expecting said smack to be called "unfortunate" but not a flagrant foul.

In the fourth quarter, Brown swiped at McConnell and unintentionally caught him in the face, sending him flying to the floor.

Even if we all agree Brown didn't intend to hit McConnell, he did it. Intent isn't the ultimate factor in determining whether a foul is flagrant.

The NBA rulebook says the criteria for a flagrant foul includes "severity of the contact" as well as "the potential for injury resulting from contact."

Here's another element:

"Whether or not the player was making a legitimate basketball play (e.g., whether a player is making a legitimate effort to block a shot; note, however, that a foul committed during a block attempt can still be considered flagrant if other criteria are present, such as recklessness and hard contact to the head)"

The moment didn't warrant an ejection, but it was well worth a Flagrant 1.

The playoffs usually come with more leeway in terms of physicality. There's being physical and then there's literally hitting an opponent in the face.

It's likely the officials didn't want to risk having to eject a star like Brown if something happened later on in the game. That's still not a good enough reason to ignore the seriousness of that contact.

If McConnell had done the same thing to Brown, would they have been so conservative in their ruling?

At that point, the Pacers were in control. Heartbreak followed as the Celtics mounted a comeback and won the game 105-102. Two shots and the ball might have made a difference in such a tight contest.