Jaylen Brown didn’t have to say anything to predict a big outing in Game 2 of the Eastern Conference semifinals on Tuesday night against the Milwaukee Bucks at TD Garden.
The look on Brown’s face hours before tip-off said it all, according to his teammates Grant Williams and Jayson Tatum.
Brown then went out and delivered his best performance of this postseason by pouring in a game-high 30 points on 11-for-18 shooting to go along with six assists and five rebounds in the Boston Celtics’ 109-86 victory over Milwaukee.
Brown made amends early for a shaky performance in Game 1 as he caught fire in the first quarter. Brown torched the Bucks for 17 points in the opening frame and made nine of his 10 shots in the first half.
“He came in locked in,” Williams said. “You could tell from when he came to the arena hours early before the game. I saw it in his eyes. At the start of the game, I was just like, ‘Alright, do your thing.’ We were supporting and cheering. He established that tone. Set that mark of the aggression on the offensive end of not only playing playing the right way, knocking down open shots, but also moving it.”
Tatum certainly had faith Brown would bounce back and Tatum said following the contest that it was Brown who “got us going” in a critical contest before the series switches to Milwaukee.
“JB was locked in, locked in from last game, locked in from shootaround,” Tatum said. “If I was a betting man, I would have bet that JB was going to have a great game and he set the tone.”
