Sometimes you need a player to step up into a leadership role, to take charge of a game, and drag your team to victory. When that player is an All-Star with questions surrounding their viability as a secondary focal point of an offense, you should feel confident that player is going to leave it all out on the court.
Every player has a “prove it” game at some point in their career. For some, it’s to prove they deserve to be part of a bench rotation or to be a team’s, sixth man. For others, it’s that they deserve a contract extension, or their usage rate should increase. In Brown’s case, it was that he’s capable of being a leader for the Boston Celtics and capable of stepping into a role as the team’s primary offensive option.
Brown failed to prove any of that.
Instead, the Celtics All-Star wing had three quarters of inefficient scoring and two where he didn’t register a single assist. With Jayson Tatum out due to health and safety protocols, Brown mustered two points in the first quarter, five in the third, and six in the fourth – only looking like an All-Star during his eight-minute second-quarter stint where he scored 13 points, per NBA Stats.
Boston needed more from their second star, and he failed to deliver. In what is becoming a consistent trend, Brown provided glimpses of his All-Star talent but vanished for large stretches of the game where the Celtics needed a leader.
Brown Holds Himself Accountable
Following the Celtics December 27 loss to the Minnesota Timberwolves, Brown cut a dejected figure as he faced the inevitable barrage of questions from the waiting media.
“Just trying to get everybody involved, trying to win, trying to make the right plays. And I didn’t do that tonight. Overthinking the game, the game isn’t as hard as I made it tonight, and I didn’t play the way I know I can play. That was probably one of my worst games of the season.
My team needed me to make plays and step up. I turned the ball over too much, I missed easy shots, easy reads, and we lost.” Brown told the media following his uninspiring performance against the Timberwolves.
There’s no denying that Brown was the most talented player on the court during the Celtics contest against Minnesota. Yet, for some reason, Brown played with a tentativeness that led to him being marginalized on both sides of the ball.
If the Celtics are going to survive the next week or so without Tatum, they will need Brown to step into the forefront of their offense and prove that he’s capable of shouldering an increased load. Otherwise, the team will fall further behind in the conference standings.
Chemistry Can’t Be An Excuse.
During his time speaking with the media, Brown noted how the Celtics’ lack of chemistry hindered their chances against the Timberwolves. However, Boston isn’t the only team struggling with roster issues due to their players entering health and safety protocols.
In fact, the Timberwolves were missing more players than the Celtics, including their three stars in Karl-Anthony Towns, D’Angelo Russell, and Anthony Edwards. So, Brown using the Celtics’ current roster struggles as part of a reasoning tool for the team’s lack of execution is likely to fall on deaf ears.
“We’re missing a lot of guys, and you could tell chemistry-wise. It was just out of sync. A lot of those turnovers came from miscommunications. A lot of those defensive lapses came from miscommunications. And that’s just, what it comes down to is chemistry. We didn’t play well today, I didn’t pIay well today, I let my team down for sure,” Brown said.
The Timberwolves are without Karl-Anthony Towns, Anthony Edwards, Patrick Beverley, D-Lo, Vanderbilt, Naz Reid, and Prince for tonight’s game.
Losing Tatum hurts, but they should still have enough to come away with the win
Both Brown and the Celtics will need to figure out their chemistry issues over the next couple of days because the team has another challenging game coming up on December 29 when they face the Los Angeles Clippers.
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Struggling Celtics Star Takes Blame After ‘Worst Game’