Jaylen Brown gets revenge on ex-Celtic Isaiah Thomas with ruthless burn

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BOSTON -- Isaiah Thomas took a friendly dig at Jaylen Brown on Tuesday night, calling out his ex-teammate for his "ugly" new haircut.

But Brown got the last laugh Wednesday night at TD Garden.

The 22-year-old guard -- who was a rookie in Thomas' final season in Boston in 2016-17 -- scored 22 points in Boston's 140-133 win over Washington.

Two of those points came against the 5-foot-9 Thomas on an isolation play that Brown seemed to relish.

When asked about the play after the game, Brown fired his return shot at I.T.

"Oh man, he knows. You don't need to say it. He knows he can't guard me," Brown said. 

"He was screaming for help. Maybe his braids was too tight and he thought he could guard me."

Lest you think there's actually any bad blood here, that's just how Brown and Thomas interact. The 30-year-old guard acted as a mentor to Brown in that 2016-17 campaign, and that included plenty of good-natured banter.

"It's great to see him out there," Brown quickly followed up. "Me and I.T. joke back and forth, but I look at I.T. as like a big brother. He's a great teammate, great guy and I'm happy to see him out there playing well."

Thomas dropped a season-high 18 points on 7-of-14 shooting, tallying his first points at TD Garden since his trade to Cleveland in the 2017 offseason.

But Thomas' "little brother" still outscored him by tallying 20-plus points in his third consecutive game, as the Celtics moved to an NBA-best 9-1 on the season.

That's a good way to get even.

Don’t miss NBC Sports Boston's coverage of Celtics-Warriors, which tips off Friday at 9:30 p.m. ET with Celtics Pregame Live, and then Mike & Scal have the call of the game at 10:30 p.m. You can also stream the game through the MyTeams App.

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