For much of Thursday night against the Golden State Warriors, Boston Celtics guard Jaylen Brown saw his shots go every which way but through the hoop.
Brown, who was coming off a right adductor injury that caused him to be sidelined for three straight games, missed 10 of his first 12 shots.
But with the game on the line and the Celtics trailing by three in the final seconds, Marcus Smart found Brown from beyond the arc. Even after all those misses, Brown didn’t hesitate.
The star guard rose up and drilled a 27-foot 3-pointer to level the score with 18.1 seconds remaining in regulation as the clutch shot gave the Celtics another life and helped them go on to take a 121-118 win in overtime at TD Garden.
“I was open, let it fly. That was it,” Brown told reporters, as seen on NBC Sports Boston postgame coverage. “We needed a shot. Smart made a good pass. … I wasn’t shooting (well). Coming back off of injury just trying to get a rhythm. As the game went on, I kept feeling better and better. So, it came down to that last possession, I got an open look and I knew it was going in.”
There wasn’t a surge of excitement that Brown experienced after sending the home crowd into a frenzy with his key triple. Instead, the 26-year-old felt a weight come off his shoulders.
And just like that, one shot from Brown, who finished with 16 points on 6-for-18 shooting to go along with nine rebounds and three assists, was critical in flipping the outlook of the game for him and the Celtics.
“It was relief, not for the individual reasons that I made the game-tying shot. We got another chance to win it in overtime,” Brown said. “The games feel a lot worse when you’re not playing to your standard and you lose. When you figure out a way to win … things feel a lot different.”
