Brown scored 41 points in Boston’s win.
Brown scored 41 points in Boston’s win.
Jaylen Brown had his high-school jersey retired on Friday, and he spent Saturday night beating up on the Hawks in a 132-106 Celtics blowout win.
Here are the takeaways. Jaylen Brown was largely uncontested
The Hawks had absolutely nothing for Jaylen Brown.
That was always going to be the case when Dyson Daniels was ruled out for the game, and it was perhaps especially likely just 24 hours after Wheeler, Brown’s high school, retired his number.
Brown had a monster game, albeit a short one — 41 points on 14-for-30 shooting to go with six rebounds and two assists in just 29 minutes since he sat the entire fourth quarter. Throughout the season, he has done a great job of getting his teammates involved, but his focus on Saturday appeared to be putting his head down and getting where he wanted to go, moving less physically gifted Hawks defenders out of the way with what appeared to be relative ease.
Brown was coming off three relatively inefficient sub-30-point games, which — by his standards this season — counts as a cold stretch. His standard may be unreasonably high at this point, but to be fair, he’s the one who put it up there by declaring himself the best two-way player in the world. An MVP candidate can go through a quieter stretch, but to keep himself in the conversation, he needs to bounce back in a big way, and Saturday’s game was a great start.
The loss to the Spurs showed the limits of what even Brown can do when attacking one of the most unique and devastating defensive presences the NBA has seen. The win over Miami showed what the Celtics can do when someone else takes over for Brown on an off night.
But Saturday’s game was an emphatic reminder that the Celtics revolve around Brown this season, even when others get themselves going. Brown warps the defense, and he gives the offense both a focal point when things are going right and an outlet when things are going wrong.
Brown called the experience of seeing his number retired “surreal.” Hopefully he enjoyed himself, because the chances are very high that it will not be the last time in his life that he watches his jersey raised to the rafters of an arena, and the next one will have to be lifted a lot higher. Sam Hauser caught fire (and then tried a little too hard)
Sam Hauser seems to have found his shooting stroke, and he nearly made Celtics history.
