Threw the ball up: Celtics troll 76ers, Jaylen Brown after 22-point win in Philly

The Celtics’ postgame message borrowed the line “Threw the ball up,” using it as the caption after a comfortable victory in Philly. Jaylen Brown was part of the framing that followed the game, but the broader point was simple: Boston left with the result, then added a sharp little jab on the way out.

That kind of move fits the modern NBA, where the conversation does not stop at the final buzzer. Teams now use social media to celebrate, needle opponents and lean into rivalries that fans already follow closely. A caption can travel as fast as a highlight, especially after a convincing road win.

The size of the margin gave the post extra bite. A 22-point victory suggests a game in which one side had enough control to make the closing minutes feel more like a formality than a chase, and those results often invite a little swagger afterward. When the winning team does it in the opponent’s building, the message tends to land harder.

For Philadelphia, the twist is that the line came from its own promotional playbook. That kind of reversal is what makes postgame trolling resonate: the words are familiar, but the context has changed completely. In a league built on competition and personality, the same phrase can sound very different after a loss.

What happens next depends on whether the next meeting brings a new scoreline or a new response online. For now, Boston owns the night in both ways, while the 76ers are left to absorb a defeat that continued on the internet after the game ended.