Getty Brooklyn's Bruce Brown reacts with Kevin Durant after making a 3-pointer in a game against the Orlando Magic at Barclays Center on January 16, 2021 in the Brooklyn borough of New York City.
Tuesday at Barclays Center was the Bruce Brown show. The Brooklyn Nets starter managed to outshine All-Star teammates James Harden and Kyrie Irving with his dazzling performance against the Sacramento Kings.
But even Brown didn’t realize just how dazzling his performance was — not until he looked up at the scoreboard toward the end of Brooklyn’s 127-118 win, its seventh straight.
Bruce Brown Shocked… By His Own Performance
Clearly, Brown was lost in the moment. The 24-year-old guard, whom the Pistons selected in the second round of the 2018 draft before he was traded to the Nets in November, was 11-for-13 shooting from the field, 2-for-3 from 3-point range and 5-of-5 from the foul line. He had the highest plus-minus ratio of any member of the Nets on Tuesday with a plus-20. He added four rebounds, two assists, a steal and zero turnovers in a complete performance.
But those 29 points? A career high. Apparently, Brown didn’t realize just how hot he was against Sacramento — not until he looked up.
“It looked like Bruce Brown just looked up at the scoreboard and saw he had 29 points,” play-by-play commentator Ryan Ruocco said on the YES Network broadcast of the game as Bowen looked up at the scoreboard and reacted to seeing how many points he had scored. “He just looked up and said, ‘29?’”
That moment @BruceBrown11 realized he dropped a career-high 29 😂😂👏👏
Yes, that’s exactly what Brown was thinking.
“Bruce, we just saw the live reaction, did you just realize you had a career-high 29 tonight?” YES Network’s Michael Grady said in a postgame interview with Brown, via YES on Twitter.
Brown smiled back: “Yeah, I just realized. (Jeff Green) was like, ‘Why you ain’t get 30?’ I was like, ‘Bro, I didn’t know!'”
Grady then asked Brown about finding a comfort zone with the Nets.
“Super comfortable,” Brown said. “I know my role, I try to stick to my role. I know what teams are going to do because we have elite scorers on the floor, so I just tried to find cracks, get offensive rebounds and get to my floater.”
Bruce Brown scored a career-high 29 points in a @BrooklynNets win over the Kings.
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Steve Nash Lauds Brown
Brown might have been shocked, but his coach wasn’t.
“Bruce is remarkable,” Nets coach Steven Nash said, via SNY. “I mean the guy, I believe he mostly played point guard last year and he’s playing, what do you want to call him, our center? He’s picking and rolling and finishing with two bigs in the lane. His willingness and ability to do that is remarkable. He made some 3s tonight, but for me it’s all the other stuff. It’s the activity, the defense, the deflections, all those other things, you add it all up and he had a big impact on the game before you even get to the points. So fantastic effort from Bruce.”
“He mostly played point guard last year and he’s playing – what do you want to call him, our center?” 😂
Steve Nash reflects on the effort of Bruce Brown (career-high 29 points) tonight
Brown, a Boston native who played collegiately for Miami, entered Tuesday averaging 6.7 points, 4.5 rebounds and 1.1 steals in 19.7 minutes in 28 games this season. His previous career high in points was 22, a feat he reached last season with Detroit. He had never eclipsed 20 points for the Nets prior to Tuesday.
Bruce had himself a CAREER night
🎥 @MaimonidesMC Play of the Game
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