BOSTON – (Staff and Wire Service Report) – Jalen Brown was the talk of the town.
Boston Celtics guard Jaylen Brown owned up to his lackluster performance in the team’s season-ending loss against the Miami Heat on Monday in Game 7 of the Eastern Conference finals.
Brown finished with 19 points and eight rebounds in the second-seeded Celtics’ 103-84 setback to the eighth-seeded Heat in Boston. However, he made just 8 of 23 shots from the floor — including 1 of 9 from 3-point range — to go along with eight turnovers.
“Just a terrible game. When my team needed me most, like (Jayson Tatum) hurt his ankle, first play of the game, and you could see it like swelling up on him,” Brown said. “He couldn’t move out there. It was tough for him. My team turned to me to make plays and I came up short, I failed. It’s tough. I give credit to Miami, but just a terrible job.”
All eyes now turn to the summer for Brown, who is eligible to sign a supermax contract extension worth $295 million over five years.
Brown, however, said he was just focused on Game 7 and nothing more.
“I expected to win today and move on,” he said. “That’s what my focus was on and that’s my focus has been on. We failed. I failed. It’s hard to think about anything else right now, to be honest. We’ll cross that bridge when we get there.”
Brown, 26, recorded career-best averages in points (26.6) and rebounds (6.9) to go along with a personal best-tying 3.5 assists per game.
A two-time All-Star and named to the 2023 All-NBA Second Team, Brown averaged 17.9 points, 5.2 rebounds and 2.2 assists in 470 career games (363 starts). He was selected by the Celtics with the third overall pick of the 2016 NBA Draft out of California.
–Field Level Media