Jaylen Brown answered his rough night in Atlanta with a dominant response in Miami, scoring 43 points in Boston’s 147-129 win over the Heat on Wednesday. After the game, he said the approach was simple: “I wanted to come back with an aggressive mindset tonight, you know, make up for the last game.”
Brown set the tone early, attacking the paint and forcing Miami’s defense to shift. “Just getting to the paint, getting to the basket and finishing. I think that was the catalyst,” he said.
Once the Heat collapsed on him, Boston’s spacing opened up. “Once I start getting to the paint, they shifted more and we got open threes,” Brown said, pointing to how the Celtics created clean looks during their record-setting start.
That start was historic. Boston scored 53 points in the first quarter, and Brown said the group could feel how well it was going as it happened: “Yeah. Great offensive quarter.”
Even then, Brown said the Celtics had to guard against letting the game drift. “Sometimes when you have a great offensive quarter, the next quarter is human,” he said. “The second quarter we kind of took our foot off the gas a little bit.”
He added that the Celtics have to be sharper with each possession, even when the offense is rolling. “We don’t want to waste any possessions,” Brown said. “There was still some stuff to clean up.”
Brown also praised Derrick White’s defensive recovery play late in the game. “I don’t know how the hell he did that, but that was impressive,” he said. “That’s like first team all defense type stuff, you know, and those are defensive player of the year type plays.”
White did not fill the box score with shot attempts, but Brown said that does not change his value. “Every game will have its own story,” Brown said. “You just got to be ready to play basketball and be versatile, be ready for any scenario.”
Brown’s own stat line backed up the confidence. He finished 17-for-29 from the field, 4-for-10 from three and 5-for-7 at the line as Boston improved to 51-25.
He also highlighted Jayson Tatum’s first triple-double of the season, saying, “That was great. We almost had 20 boards tonight, which is exceptional.” Brown added that Tatum is “building up,” and said that will matter in the playoffs: “A strong Jayson Tatum, physical and him being who he is, is going to help us be a better team.”
Brown’s bounce-back night matched the urgency Boston needed after its loss in Atlanta. The Celtics now visit Milwaukee on Friday.
