Jaylen Brown’s 34 points, eight rebounds, and seven assists weren’t enough to get the Boston Celtics over the finish line in Monday’s loss to the Detroit Pistons. A near 34-point triple-double on an efficient 13-25 from the field would leave many players feeling as if they’d done their part.
Not Brown, who put the blame on himself after the loss.
“I’ve got to do better to get my team over the hump,” Brown said. “In my mind, I didn’t have my best game tonight, so that’s on me.”
Could he have been better? Yes, for sure. Any time you miss seven free throws in a seven-point loss, you can be better. But, as he’s done the whole season, Brown was the motor that kept the Celtics’ engine running.
Jaylen Brown's playmaking has been awesome
The team as a whole shot just 10-39 from beyond the arc, 4-22 if you exclude his and Derrick White’s attempts. There’s no way this game should’ve been as close as it was with the lack of a perimeter threat. That’s what JB does: he gives the team a chance to win.
Brown created many of those attempts, which were clean, too. He finished the night with 11 potential assists, according to the league’s website. Joe Mazzulla praised him for it after the fact, crediting his decision-making and commitment to making the right play.
“I think at the end of the day, you just have to make the right read, which I thought he did tonight,” Mazzulla explained postgame. “He got to the free-throw line, finished at the rim, and kicked out as he drove through traffic for us. That's just the nature of it. Nothing else is more important than that, regardless of if they're going in or not, to make it the right read. I thought we did that for the majority of the game. And I thought there were obviously possessions that we can get better.”
Even with the loss, Brown’s performance remains impressive, though he doesn’t think so. Detroit essentially threw the kitchen sink at him in the second half, after he lit them on fire for the first 24 minutes.
He didn’t break, passed out of double teams, and continued to get inside to finish at the cup.
Jaylen Brown's consistent play is earning him national recognition
Through 26 games now, Brown has led the Celtics to fourth place in the Eastern Conference. He’s embraced a leadership role on and off the court and has handled added attention from opposing defenses with grace as Jayson Tatum recovers from a torn Achilles tendon.
This isn't just a case of "more shots, more points," either. Brown has come a long way as a playmaker this season, which isn't something that many would've predicted. It's now his responsibility to make his teammates better each night, and he's embraced that -- especially as of late.
Over the last 10 games, he’s taken his game to another level. Brown has posted 32 points, 7.1 rebounds, 6.2 assists, and 1.5 steals per game while shooting 50% from the field and 38% from long range during that span.
His elevated play and the team’s response earned JB a spot in the top five of NBA.com’s MVP Ladder. The consistency he’s played with on a nightly basis isn’t going unnoticed nationally, or within the locker room.
“I think that’s kind of what makes him special,” White said of Brown’s ownership of Monday’s loss. “He had 30-something and still wants to do better for us, and so that’s what makes him special. He’s probably his toughest critic, and we know that he’s going to bounce back and continue to do special things for us. And so, obviously, this loss isn’t on him. It’s on all of us, and we got his back, but that’s just kind of the guy he is in this and why we love playing with him.”