The Boston Celtics escaped with a win Thursday night, but Jaylen Brown wasn’t to thank all that much.
Although he’s in the middle of a breakout, All-Star campaign, Brown was a bit of a mess in the 132-125 win over the Toronto Raptors — particularly in the first half.
At times, he was lost on defense, as evidence by the three fouls he committed across the first 24 minutes, and was 0-for-3 from the field.
He knew how bad it was.
“I thought I had an (expletive) game (Thursday),” Brown said after the game, via The Boston Globe. “Lack of focus. I think it was better in the second half. I’m glad we got the win, but lack of focus was evident on my behalf and I’ve got to be better in every moment of being a leader, and that’s a challenge.”
Things did turn around for the 24-year-old. He finished with 21 points, going 4-for-11 from the field while knocking down 11 of his 16 free throws, while only committing one more foul. A respectable showing given how nondescript his first half was.
Now, he heads down to Atlanta for his first All-Star game, where the “underappreciated” forward will play for Team LeBron. The game will be played this Sunday.
It could be a strange experience for Brown, who will be on the opposite side of Boston teammate Jayson Tatum for the first time as an NBA player. They won’t be guarding each other much, though, with Tatum basically saying this week that he’s sick of guarding Brown after all the times they’ve faced off 1-on-1 in practice.
