Jaylen Brown dropped 40, lifted Celtics to dominant Game 2 victory over Pacers: 10 takeaways
For the second game in a row, Brown's heroics helped the Celtics secure a win over the Pacers, extending a 2-0 lead in the Eastern Conference Finals.
The Celtics overcame an odd, choppy Game 2 and claimed a 126-110 win over the Pacers to take a 2-0 series lead in the Eastern Conference Finals.
Here are the takeaways.
1. One day before Game 2, Jaylen Brown was passed over for All-NBA.
In the grand scheme, it wasn’t that important. Brown made All-NBA last season, which was when it really mattered (because it got him paid), and frankly, for the sake of Brown’s colleagues, not getting picked wasn’t the worst thing in the world (because now Tyrese Haliburton can get paid).
Still, the Celtics were not in contention for MVP or Coach of the Year. They had two All-Defense second team selections, which is nice, but Brad Stevens won Executive of the Year for assembling … a largely unawarded team who won the Eastern Conference by double digits.
When Brown was asked about the snub after the game, he noted that the Celtics are “two games from the Finals, so I don’t have the time to give a f—” in a tone that suggested he absolutely gave a f—.
“I watch guys get praised and anointed who I feel like are half as talented as me on either side of the ball,” Brown said. “But at this point in my life, I just embrace it. It comes with being who I am and what I stand for, and I ain’t really changing it. So I just come out, and I’m grateful to step out on the floor each and every night. Put my best foot forward. get better every single year, and whether people appreciate it or not, it is what it is.”
That press conference came on the heels of one of the best Jaylen Brown games we’ve ever seen (and we’ve seen some good ones!) – 40 points on 14-for-27 shooting, 4-for-10 from three and 8-for-11 from the free-throw line. Brown dominated the Pacers, getting wherever he wanted and scoring over an overmatched Pacers defense that couldn’t do much about his springy, physical style of play. The Celtics needed Brown’s buckets, but when he was bottled up, he dished several assists (he was credited for two, but the scorers missed at least one), and he jump-started the Celitcs’ offense by creating penetration multiple times.
Joe Mazzulla was asked how Brown handled the snub.
“I think he cares about it in a way that motivates him, and I think he doesn’t really care about it at all because he understands that winning is the most important thing,” Mazzulla said. “He has an innate ability to just get better and to work hard, motivation. He has unreal confidence, but he’s also not afraid to work on things that he knows he has to get better at. You see him every day at shootaround or practice, he’s out there with six or seven coaches working on every possession, every spacing imaginable so that he sees his reads.
“He just cares about the right stuff. But obviously I think stuff like that does motivate him, but I know he also really wants to win, and he has a growth mindset and wants to get better. I really enjoy coaching him.”
2. The Pacers got some scary injury news: Tyrese Haliburton left the game in the third quarter after taking an odd step and never returned. Adrian Wojnarowski later reported that Haliburton was dealing with a hamstring issue. Earlier this season, Haliburton missed 10 games with a hamstring injury.
Two things to note here: The Celtics’ opponents have undeniably been decimated by injury throughout this postseason run, and the NBA should probably take a hard look at the policies it put in place to prevent load management, but it’s worth remembering that Kristaps Porzingis – a player many talking heads said might actually be the Celtics’ second-most important – has been out for a month, and they keep winning.
Second: Haliburton was once again a target of the majority of Celtics’ schemes and sets when he was on the floor. The Pacers – who, it should go without saying, need him very badly – are in a tough spot whether or not he plays in Game 3.
3. Jayson Tatum had a very quiet first half, but he rallied in the second to finish with 23 points on 9-for-20 shooting. He played some good defense and was once again effective as a screener, but he was very much a secondary character as Brown ran rampant over Indiana.
4. Luke Kornet left the game with a sprained wrist, which forced the Celtics to go to a small-ball lineup with Oshae Brissett. That may have been a minor blessing (if Kornet is okay): Brissett finished +18 in just 12 minutes. The quicker lineup was significantly better, and Myles Turner never punished the Celtics for going small.
Brissett, who posted two points, three rebounds and a team-high three steals against his old team, said the playoffs are “10 steps up” from the regular season.
“This being my first time with a championship team, it’s amazing,” he said. “I really feel like I’ve been locked in, real focused on all the little details and things that I, before, never really paid attention to just because I didn’t have the experience. I feel like I’m in a good position, obviously. We’re all here.”
5. Credit where it’s due to two Pacers: Pascal Siakam continued to absolutely cook the Celtics, finishing with 28 points on 13-for-17 shooting. He was 8-for-9 in the first half
Andrew Nembhard, meanwhile, is a really dangerous scorer, especially in the mid-range. His ability to create shots off the bounce is somewhat unexpectedly very impressive.
6. Derrick White scored 23 points on 8-for-15 shooting (4-for-8 from three) while Jrue Holiday scored 15 points and shot 6-for-7 from the field (3-for-4 from three).
The Celtics aren’t going to lose games when that happens, whether they are playing an exhausted and banged-up Pacers team or an opponent in the NBA Finals.
“They are just really good basketball players,” Mazzulla said. “… They come into a game open-minded on how they can impact it in different ways. Sometimes it’s defense, sometimes it’s pick-and-roll handling, sometimes it’s screening, sometimes it’s scoring, sometimes it’s shot making.”
7. Sam Hauser and Isaiah Jackson picked up double technicals in the fourth quarter after they fought for a loose rebound, and Jackson tried to yank Hauser around by the arm.
Our first bad blood of the series!
Hauser, incidentally, is still yet to make a three in the conference finals, but he was better in Game 2 – just two points, but five rebounds, three assists, two steals and a block in his 22 minutes.
8. Rick Carlisle made the odd decision to pull all his starters early in the fourth quarter, even though the game remained very much within reach of a quick flurry for most of the fourth quarter. Carlisle may have been saving them for a crucial Game 3 in Indianapolis, and perhaps Haliburton’s absence did the work of waving the white flag for him, but it was jarring to see an offensive juggernaut like the Pacers essentially decide that a 14-point game was unwinnable.
9. Jayson Tatum was not snubbed from All-NBA: He made the first team.
“It’s special. It’s something I strive to do and I expect, but it’s nothing I take for granted,” he said. “It’s an honor to be on first-team All-NBA. So many talented guys in this league and the talent just gets better and better every year. So I’m very fortunate to make that team again and thankful for everybody that has helped me along the way. Success is not something you can achieve by yourself, so there’s a lot of people that deserve credit in helping me get to where I want.”
Oh, and also: “We all felt like, internally, that [Brown] should have made one of the All-NBA teams,” Tatum said. “So it was a shame to see that he didn’t.”
10. Game 3 tips off at 8:30 p.m. Saturday on ABC.
“The only thing we should be thinking about is they were down 2-0 a series ago and they brought it to Game 7,” Mazzulla said. “They do a great job protecting their home court, they are undefeated at home. So it’s going to take a lot more than confidence to get the job done, and we have to focus on the details and the execution and the mindset, the things that go into playing against a team like this at home.”
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