Jaylen Brown making a habit of disappearing in fourth quarter

Wednesday night was not the first time that Jaylen Brown has not been involved in the offense in the fourth quarter.

If you guessed that Jaylen Brown would not reach 20 points in the Boston Celtics‘ 90-89 loss to the Miami Heat on Wednesday after going off for 12 points in the first quarter, you guessed correctly.

In fact, a late three-pointer was the only thing that kept Brown from failing to eclipse his season average of 14.5 points per game. After going off in the first quarter and playing with unyielding aggressiveness, Brown was a shell of himself down the stretch of the game.

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Brown’s unwillingness to assume a prominent offensive role in the fourth quarter of games has been a consistent trend. This season, the second-year pro has taken 132 shots in the first quarter and 113 shots in the third quarter of games but just 44 total shots in the fourth quarter. His 40.9 percent field goal percentage in the fourth quarter is way below his overall 47 percent mark, and he has converted on just five of his 21 three-point attempts, a far cry from the 39.7 percent conversion rate he has garnered from beyond the line this season.

Among the nine players in the NBA who have played in clutch situations, with five minutes or less remaining in the game, and a margin of five points or less, on at least 20 occasions this season, Brown is one of only two players with a field goal percentage under 40 percent and a three-point percentage of under 30 percent, with the Pelicans’ Jrue Holiday being the other.

Even Marcus Smart has outplayed Brown in clutch time, shooting 50 percent from the field and 33 percent from three-point land. The difference is that Smart actively seeks out the ball when the game is on the line. Brown seems to shy away from the possibility of putting the team on his back when it matters.

We witnessed this throughout the final 3:35 against the Heat once Brown entered the game for good. Brown repeatedly settled into the deep corner on offensive possessions, not moving at all without the ball or coming to the ball in an attempt to retrieve it. Others such as Smart and Jayson Tatum were making an effort to assist Kyrie Irving offensively by putting up shots of their own and attempting to be offensive threats.

The only time in which Brown took a shot was a made three-pointer with 1:31 left in the game. Albeit a massive shot to cut Boston’s deficit to 87-84 and finish off an 8-0 run, this was the only one that Brown took and the only reason why he took it is because he literally had no other option. Irving served up a dime to him at the top of the key and head coach Brad Stevens might have yanked Brown right off the floor if he hadn’t taken the attempt.

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Making shots like this one should supplant Brown with some confidence in his scoring ability late in games. Without Gordon Hayward, the Celtics need Brown to emerge as a threat to put the ball in the basket when the going gets tough and buckets are needed to eke out close victories. Right now, Brown is invisible in these situations.

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