Jaylen Brown Had Blunt Take On His First Half In Celtics-Nets

The Boston Celtics cruised to their third straight win on Tuesday night, picking up a 113-99 victory over the Brooklyn Nets. It wasn’t exactly a pretty win, thanks in large part to a slow start from Jaylen Brown, who played sparingly in the first half.

Brown once again led the C’s to this win, scoring 29 points while hauling in four rebounds and dishing out four assists, but much of that production came in the second half. That’s because Brown played just 10 minutes in the first half, as he struggled to find his footing.

Head coach Joe Mazzulla’s unique subbing pattern with Brown quickly caught attention, and he explained after the game that he was simply looking to “disperse” his minutes. Brown shot that notion down, though, saying that he was not playing well enough to be on the court for Boston.

“Nah, I was just playing like s*** in the first half,” Brown said after the game. “Honestly, turning the ball over, etc. I just took a minute for me to figure it out. Kind of picked it up to close the game. Gotta come out to a better start in the first, especially in the first quarter.

The team kind of feeds off me. I know that. So I gotta be better. Joe is just holding me to a higher standard.”

Everything changed in the third quarter for Brown, as he scored 17 of his 29 points to help the Celtics keep the Nets at arm’s length. With the defense tightening up in the fourth quarter, Brooklyn scored just 14 points, and that ended up being enough to help the C’s escape with this win.

At the end of the day, Boston got the result it was looking for, and that’s all that matters. The team will go for its fourth straight win when it takes on the Nets again on Friday night as part of the league’s NBA Cup action.