‘Likely not coincidence’ struggling Boston Celtics max star deemphasized late vs Knicks

It’s “likely not a coincidence” that Jaylen Brown was de-emphasized by Boston Celtics head coach Joe Mazzulla late in the C’s win against the New York Knicks on October 25 from Madison Square Garden says MassLive’s Brian Robb — with Mazzulla leaning on opening night hero Kristaps Porzingis, Derrick White, and Jayson Tatum to pull away in the fourth quarter.

“It was a forgettable season debut for the All-Star (11 points on 4-of-11 shooting) in New York as he struggled to find his rhythm around his new teammates,” Robb prefaced before saying, “Mazzulla wasn’t going to bench one of his stars obviously in the opener but it likely wasn’t a coincidence that Brown did not touch the ball much during crunch time. It wasn’t his night and the team was intent in the halfcourt on working actions around Porzingis, White and Tatum who jumpstarted the 15-5 run collectively in the final four minutes of the game.”

As Robb points out, there will be a learning curve for the C’s core that Mazzulla already navigated better on opening night than he did during the 2022-23 season.

“There will be a learning curve for this group to play off each other but the ball was in the right people’s hands at the end of this game,” Robb prefaced before saying, “That was often not the case last year.”

Jaylen Brown can have off-nights with loaded Boston Celtics supporting cast

With his supermax already paid, Brown may be prone to having off-nights in a new NBA landscape that doesn’t allow scheduled maintenance days. While it could be frustrating some nights during the regular season, there are two reasons not to worry about it.

The first is that the aforementioned loaded cast was able to produce a pair of 30-point scorers and close the deal. The second is that as long as he can turn it on by the playoffs, a bit of a down year would be forgiven if never encouraged.