The Boston Celtics were on the precipice of history. But their quest to sealing their fate as the first-ever NBA team to come back from a 3-0 series deficit in the playoffs started off on the worst note. On the very first play of Game 7 against the Miami Heat, Jayson Tatum turned his left ankle, effectively limiting his impact on the game.
For most teams, having their best player be limited by an untimely injury may have been an automatic death knell. But it's not the case for the Celtics; even with Tatum not at 100 percent, they still had Jaylen Brown, a member of the All-NBA Second Team, to pick up the slack. But whatever the opposite of pick up the slack is, that's exactly what Brown did.
Brown ended the night with 19 points on a rough 8-of-23 shooting from the field (1-of-9 from deep), and an unsightly eight turnovers, unable to fill the void Tatum's ankle injury left. As a result, the Celtics lost steam, and their hopes of a 3-0 comeback went up in smoke as the Heat blew them out, 103-84, to end the series. Brown drew the jeers of fans from Twitter due to this putrid showing, but there's no one in the world who's more frustrated over the 26-year-old wing's performance than Brown himself.
“Just a terrible game when my team needed me most,” Brown said, per Jay King of The Athletic. “My team turned to me to make plays, etcetera and I came up short I failed. I give credit to Miami but just a terrible job [by me].”
Props to Jaylen Brown for owing to the part he played in the Celtics' shortcomings, but seeing it unfold in real time could not have been fun in any way for fans of the home team. Brown had troubles with his ballhandling all game long, settled for far too many difficult shots, and even saw a few makeable shots clank off the rim.
It'll be interesting to see where the Celtics proceed from here, especially amid trade rumors involving Brown. But whatever the Celtics end up doing, Brown will have a long offseason ahead of him to think about where and how it all went wrong.
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