BSJ Game Report: Celtics 146, Clippers 115 - Jaylen Brown's career night leads hot-shooting C's to third straight win

Everything you need to know about the Celtics win over the Clippers, with BSJ insight and analysis.

IN A NUTSHELL

Jaylen Brown and the Celtics came out hot in the first and built a 14 point lead behind their highest-scoring first quarter of the season. John Collins got hot to help cut the Boston lead to eight at halftime. The third quarter was an absolute shootout where Boston got the lead back up to 14. Brown’s dominance stretched into the fourth as he got to 50 points and the C’s busted the game open.

Box Score

HEADLINES

- Jaylen Brown’s revenge: I don’t know who votes for Player of the Month, but whomever it was should consider the 35 minutes Brown played one giant middle finger in their direction. Brown was sublime all the way around in this game. If you went to bed early, find a replay of the game and watch Brown play. It might be the best he’s ever played.

- Hot shooting all around: The Celtics shot 55% overall, 47% from 3, and 84% from the line. They hit 24 3-pointers with everyone but Sam Hauser, who his first two, shooting better than 41% from deep. 

- Moving up in the standings: The Knicks have lost three straight while Boston has won three, putting Boston just a half-game behind the second seed. They are tied in the loss column at 12. 

TURNING POINT

The Celtics broke open a six-point game with a 17-9 run to end the third quarter. That run extended to 23-11 over the first couple of minutes in the fourth, and the Clippers could never close the gap after that. 

THINGS I LIKED

- Jaylen Brown: People don’t pay much attention to the other stuff when someone drops 50, but his defense and passing were really good in this game as well. This really was one of his best ever performances. 

"After the game, I just kinda thanked him,” Joe Mazzulla said. “I thought that was an honor to be able to watch a performance like that as a coach."

- Derrick White: He not only came out hot offensively, he blocked two shots in the first quarter to help build the big lead. He had 29 points on 50% shooting, seven assists, two blocks, and a steal and no one will remember it. 

- Jordan Walsh: He was moved out of the starting lineup and he responded with a 13/13 double-double to go along with some tremendous defense on Kawhi Leonard and James Harden. 

“I think the idea here is, like, he didn’t move to the bench. We went with Sam (Hauser) because we knew what their lineups were going to be,” Mazzulla said. “We want to get off to a great start on the offensive end, we knew what their coverages were … it changed their matchups because we went with him. And I think it's a testament to the guys that we're always going to do what gives us the best chance to win, and everyone has embraced that. So for him to understand that, and for Sam to come out and play well, and then for Jordan to even give us the production that he did, that just shows the mindset of the team.”

Six of his 13 rebounds were offensive and he was 3-4 from 3. 

- Anfernee Simons: He had a very nice road trip, and this was a perfect capper. He scored 15 off the bench, all of them on 3-pointers. He also had four assists. 

- Protecting the ball: They shot the ball 96 times, scored 146, and only turned it over SIX times. That's very difficult to accomplish. 

- Payton Pritchard (4th quarter): He saved all of his scoring for the fourth quarter, where he scored 12 points on 5-8 shooting. He had no points on two shot attempted through he first three quarters. 

THINGS I DIDN’T LIKE

- Payton Pritchard (quarters 1-3): There was a point in the third quarter where I was begging Mazzulla to pull Pritchard and go with Josh Minott or Hugo Gonzalez. Pritchard was getting picked on defensively and he wasn’t doing anything scoring-wise. I knew he’d make me look bad at some point, but as it was happening, it was clear the Clippers were targeting him and succeeding.  

- Perimeter defense: Some of it was the Clippers being almost as hot as Boston (50% shooting, 39.5% from 3) but the Celtics struggled, especially early, to challenge a lot of those shots. 

HIGHLIGHTS

TWO TAKES KARALIS WILL PROBABLY REGRET LATER

- Not getting Player of the Month was perfect for Jaylen Brown.

I don’t want to get into it too much because Brown’s night will be tonight’s featured story as well, but there was nothing better for Brown’s brand than getting passed over for East POM. Brown always needs something to fight against, and the motivation he got from missing out on that award is perfect. 

What a perfectly on-brand performance this was. 

- The C’s did exactly what they needed to do on this trip.

They went 4-1 on a trip where all five games were winnable. I said before the trip that expecting them to sweep it was a bit much, but they should still come out of it with 21 or 22 wins. 

I still think there's a downturn coming somewhere, but they’ve banked enough wins now that even if they drop to a pace in the 50-something-percent range, they're still in great shape. 

In fact, with 48 games left, they just need to go 22-26 the rest of the way to hit my preseason prediction of 44 wins. If they play .500 ball the rest of the season, they’ll get to 46. Their current pace will get them to 53 wins. 

Not bad for a team that started 0-3 with Jaylen Brown nursing a sore hamstring. 

Next Up: The Celtics return home to face the Bulls Monday night.