Jaylen Brown was up for the challenge in Game 2 of Boston’s first-round playoff series against the Orlando Magic on Wednesday night.
The defending NBA champions were without six-time All-Star Jayson Tatum because of a wrist injury suffered in Game 1, and the Magic were eager to up their physical play to even the series at 1-1. Unfortunately for the visiting team, however, Brown looked every bit the player who was named MVP of the NBA Finals a year ago despite playing through a bone bruise in his right knee that required painkilling injections to start the week.
“He came in saying he was going to do everything it takes to win,” Celtics coach Joe Mazzulla said of Brown. “You just trust that mindset, really the warrior mentality that he has. He can take it to another level mentally and physically.”
Brown took it to another level and then some, dropping a game-high 36 points and 10 rebounds to lift the Celtics to a 109-100 victory and 2-0 series lead. The teams will meet for Game 3 on Friday night in Orlando.
Tatum, who suffered a bone bruise to his right wrist in Game 1 on a hard foul from Kentavious Caldwell-Pope, was listed as doubtful throughout the day Wednesday before being downgraded before tipoff. It was the first time since he was drafted in 2017 that he sat out a playoff game.
“Obviously, JT is the offensive leader, and we play off of him,” Brown said of playing without Tatum. “But any given night, I can rise to the occasion.”
Brown played the entirety of the game’s 42 minutes and connected on 5-of-7 shots from beyond the arc. He also added five assists and a steal to his stat line. His 36 points were just four shy of his playoff career-high 40 points scored in a second-round game against the Indiana Pacers last year.
Brown wasn’t the only one who came up big offensively for the Celtics. Kristaps Porzingis finished with 20 points despite not connecting on a three-pointer, followed by Game 1’s leading scorer, Derrick White, with 17 points. Jrue Holiday added 11 points for Boston, while Payton Pritchard, who was named the NBA’s Sixth Man of the Year on Tuesday, added 14 points off the bench.
Perhaps the biggest differentiator in the contest was Boston’s dominance on the glass, as Brown, Porzingis, and Al Horford each pulled down 10 boards for the home team. The Celtics outrebounded Orlando 33-27, including 13-7 on the offensive glass.
In a continuation of Game 1, tempers flared at multiple points during the game on Wednesday night. Caldwell-Pope, who was booed relentlessly by the TD Garden crowd, got tangled up with Horford in a play that was reviewed by officials but ruled a common foul. And later in the game, Porzingis was treated for a gash on his forehead after taking an elbow from Goga Bitadze — that play was reviewed and upgraded to a Flagrant 1.
“We’re going to be us,” Porzingis told reporters after the game. “We’re not going to let anybody punk us. And we expect teams to be doing this kind of stuff, to get in our heads, to try to provoke us, to try to maybe get some reaction out of us, some technical maybe, something. It’s an emotional game, obviously, so we weren’t surprised but we’re just not going to take it. So, we’re going to hit them right back.”
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