Jaylen Brown should have been jovial. He should have had a huge smile on his face as he enjoyed Thursday night’s thrilling 92-88 victory over the Warriors with his teammates in the TD Garden locker room.
Not only did the Celtics erase two 17-point deficits to knock off the defending champions — which is being mentioned as one of the greatest NBA teams of all time — but the Celtics had won their 14th-straight game, the longest streak in franchise history since 2010.
And it wouldn’t have come close to happening if it wasn’t for Brown’s heroics. While Kyrie Irving was being frustrated by the Warriors’ defense and his facemask (which he ditched for the fourth quarter) to the tune of five points through three quarters, Brown carried the Celtics into contention.
One minute they were down 17 points with 4:59 remaining in the third quarter and we were all getting ready to wax poetically about how it just wasn’t the young Celtics’ time. And less than four minutes later the Celtics had reeled off a 19-0 run to take a brief lead before being tied entering the final quarter. Brown had 10 of his team-high 22 points during the run — including eight consecutive at one stage of the run — to set the stage for the Celtics’ stunning victory.
“He was just active,” said Kevin Durant. “He got his hands on the basketball. He was moving around. He made some shots. … He’s not really an explosive scorer, so for him to knock down some shots it kept them in the game.”
But you wouldn’t know it from watching Brown in the postgame locker room. He constantly checked his phone and moved slowly. He sat for a long stretch in front of his locker and just stared at the back of it. Brown took deep calming breaths, almost like he trying to stave off anxiety.
But what Brown was feeling then — and all day for that matter — had nothing to do with what had just transpired on the court, or in front of a national television audience that got a glimpse of these feel-good Celtics.
When Brown finally addressed the media, with a long face and staring only the ground, the weight he was carrying finally showed itself.
“My best friend passed last night,” Brown said. “It was tough to kind of accept it. Everybody was kind of in shock. But I knew coming into today that he would have wanted me to play. It was hard getting my thoughts together, but after talking to his mom and his family, they inspired me to come out and play. I wasn’t in any shape to come out. I didn’t want to leave my room. But they inspired me to come out and play. And I came out and played in his spirit today. My teammates held me up and we pulled it out.”
Brown may have been the center of attention on the court last night, but the gravity of real life illustrated once again how insignificant these games really are.
Trevin Steede, Brown’s confidant since Wheeler High School (video of the two of them; caution: language), was gone, and basketball didn’t really matter all that much to Brown. The night that many will never, almost never happened for Brown.
Trevin Steede, left.