Jaylen Brown didn't mince words when it came to the importance of the Boston Celtics' December 15 win (128-111) over the Orlando Magic -- calling it the biggest game of the year thus far of the 2023-24 season after breaking a four-game losing skid to Orlando.
“I think this is the biggest game of the year so far,” Brown said (h/t MassLive). “In my opinion, for us, I think one we had a bunch of guys out and were on a back-to-back versus a team that’s been kicking our ass the last four or five times we played. I think this was the biggest game to me so far.”
As Brown would recall from the game's opening minutes, the Magic looked as though they'd have control and it'd be a long night for Boston, but the Celtics made it difficult on Orlando instead.
“I think we came out, even though they came out swinging like the first shot they took was a three,” Brown said. “Suggs hit it on the left wing was tough, it was well defended but he made it, you know, and that can kind of be discouraging in that time, so it was like, oh it’s gonna be a long night. But we took those punches and kept throwing punches back and that’s what we wanna, you know, instill in our guys. We fight, we make it hard for you, we play the game the right way.”
Boston Celtics break Eddie House curse with win over Orlando Magic
It was starting to look as though there was an Eddie House curse after he called the Magic "trash" following a December 16, 2022 Orlando victory. That whiteboard material comment seemed to motivate the Magic every time they played the Celtics.
But it was Orlando that perhaps took Boston lightly without the C's top three bigs on the depth chart on December 15.
And thus, the Eddie House curse is broken.