The Boston Celtics defeated the Miami Heat 93-80 on Wednesday to bring themselves within one win of the NBA Finals, and Jaylen Brown wants to make sure they don't fumble away that opportunity.
"This is a great opportunity," Brown said in his postgame media availability. "Leave everything on the floor. Have no reasons for regret... we have a chance to do something special."
Boston's golden chance to fight for a championship comes after another grueling game in this Eastern Conference finals matchup, where Brown and Jayson Tatum overcame a disastrous first half to lead the Celtics to victory.
"First half was (expletive)," Brown said. "Threw it away. Came out and played basketball in the second half.
"I'm going to keep being aggressive. I'm going to keep getting into the paint, making them stop me. I just got to do a better job of finding the right guy and hopefully next game some of those hand checking calls start going my way.
"As the game goes on some of that energy, some of that intensity wears off, and the game opens up a bit. The game opened up for me in the second half."
Brown certainly performed better in the second half for Boston, scoring 19 of his 25 points after halftime, while failing to turn the ball over, something that head coach Ime Udoka pointed to specifically when asked about Brown's turnaround.
When asked about what sparked the Celtics' turnaround, Tatum told reporters, "We basically talked about how much does (winning) mean to us?"
Evidently the answer was a lot because Tatum also turned things around in the second half, scoring 18 of his 22 points after the break. Tatum and Brown combined (37) to nearly outscore the entire Heat roster (38) in the second half of Game 5.
"We feel like not a lot of people can play basketball with us," Brown said.
Boston's chance to close out the series comes on Friday night, with tip off scheduled for 8:30 p.m. ET at TD Garden.
