The Celtics were in the midst of a trademark lull that turned a promising lead into life for the other team. Jaylen Brown took a pass from Dennis Schroder and tossed a chest pass to Al Horford, who was about two feet away, to start running a set.
Horford wasn’t quite looking yet, and the pass was a bit too fast for him. Orlando got the ball and Brown was booked for his fourth turnover of the half. The Celtics called timeout a few seconds later, and Brown walked to the bench tossing a towel high up over his shoulder and mimicking the pass he should have thrown. He plopped down hard in his seat.
“A lot of unforced turnovers which has been frustrating for me and probably everybody watching,” Brown said of his miscues. “Some of them came from just lackadaisical passing or slipping through somebody's hands or miscommunications, etc. Those moments are frustrating especially when you are trying to do your best to take care of the basketball.”
Turnovers are nothing new for Brown, who has 68 of them compared to 64 assists this season. It’s a less than ideal ratio for a player being asked to be more mindful of creating for his teammates. Still, he’s being encouraged to keep pushing.
“Everybody on the team and the coaching staff said the same thing like, 'Jaylen - you are trying to do the right thing, you are looking at the right stuff. Keep being aggressive,’” Brown explained after the white-knuckle win over Orlando. “Ime said the same thing to me throughout the game. Just don't take your foot off the gas, keep being aggressive, it should work itself out. I'm grateful that he continues to put that confidence in me because I kept being aggressive all game.”
The aggressiveness paid off when Brown made an off-balance fadeaway to cut the Orlando lead to 12. And when he filled the lane on a fast break to finish a rock-the-baby layup to make it a nine-point game. And also when he took a pass from Marcus Smart to hit a 3-pointer in two people’s faces to cut it to six.
It especially paid off when he caught a pass off a Smart drive and drove it himself past a defender, through contact, to cut it to two.
And then again when he took a feed from Smart (after a trademark disrespectful Smart steal) to finish between two defenders.
And then in the waning seconds of regulation, with a crafty between the legs crossover dribble, it paid off the most with a go-ahead basket past four Magic defenders
That's 14 Brown points in the final 4:07 of regulation. He’d add three more in overtime to get to his first-ever 50-point game. He had no turnovers in that stretch.
“We needed to win,” Brown said. “No way we could have lost this game, wouldn’t have been good. The media wouldn’t have been good. I wanted to get a win for everybody.”
Everybody needed a win like this, but perhaps especially Brown, who struggled in two of Boston’s most discouraging losses. And he’s right about how bad this one would have been. He’s right about how bad that postgame session would have gone. Instead, though, he’s being lifted up by his teammates.
“JB is one of those guys. He wants to do the right thing. He wants to be perfect, and he wants to be held accountable,” Smart said. Smart said he joked with Brown about the seven turnovers, which basically is how guys console each other. “He asks us to do that for him, and vice versa, and so we know the type of player Jaylen can be, and once JB just allows the game to come to him he can do stuff like this on a nightly basis. So being able to joke about it lets JB know and kind of puts it in his head that we’re here for him, and we’re all going to see him continue to grow.”
Smart has been here for the entire Jaylen Brown experience. He’s the only one on the bench who has now that Brad Stevens has moved upstairs. Smart, more than anyone, knows where Brown started, and how far he’s come to drop 50 in a game the Celtics really needed.
“I know it might not seem like it but JB and I are closer than people think. We talk all the time and constantly just try to keep his confidence up,” Smart said. “He’s trying, and that’s all we can ask for. That’s all we want. He’s going to continue to get better, and the growth is going to continue to grow, and for this team, we need that.”
While Brown is supported by his oldest teammate, he’s being pushed by his new head coach. Brown is a scorer by nature, and a good one at that. But Ime Udoka wants more from him and, whenever he returns, Jayson Tatum. Both are being asked to see and do more, raising their and their teammate’s games.
“Ime has been great. Despite some of the bad games I’ve had and bad reads I might have done, Ime has trusted me,” Brown said. “Put the ball in my hands to make plays for myself and my teammates, and I can’t do more than appreciate that. Good days and bad days, but I’ll continue to learn and grow in those positions and help my team down the line. We’ll get rolling, especially when we get JT back, and we get the rest of our guys back. These last couple of games I think I’ve learned a lot.”
Only six other members of the Boston Celtics, who by the way are celebrating their 75th anniversary as one of the league’s charter members, have ever scored 50 points in a game. It’s a prestigious company.
He also needed that fourth quarter and overtime run to make up for a lot of the turnovers that put Boston in the position to need to come back. He switched from bothersome to brilliant in a flash when the team needed him most.
“The way I see it, you can't be afraid to make mistakes,” Brown said. “You have to continue to keep playing and keep getting aggressive regardless of whatever the situation after the game is going to go. That should even out down the line. We got 40, 50 games left, we'll figure it out. Just keep playing, keep guarding, keep making the right plays and try to do the right things, I have faith everything will work itself out. You can't stop being aggressive, that was my mindset.”