Get the latest Boston sports news
Receive updates on your favorite Boston teams, straight from our newsroom to your inbox.
‘Come ready to play or don’t come at all’: Jaylen Brown doesn’t mince words after Celtics’ loss to Nets
“Come ready to play basketball, or you're doing a disservice.”
The Celtics (8-8) fell 113-105 to the 12-loss Brooklyn Nets at TD Garden Friday night, marking just the Nets’ third win all season.
Boston has shown flashes of potential through the first month of regular-season play, but a lack of consistency has them toward the bottom of the Eastern Conference standings through 16 games. That inconsistency cost them a win on Friday.
It’s difficult to know how the Celtics will perform on any given night against any given opponent. This led to Jaylen Brown making blunt comments about his team’s effort, particularly on defense, after their loss to the Nets.
Advertisement:
“Come ready to play or don’t come at all,” Brown said. “That’s my whole thing: we’ve gotta come ready to play. We just went through the motions tonight. I don’t understand.”
Brown led Boston in points (26), but finished the night a -4 on the floor. He recorded eight rebounds and four assists in addition to two steals. Brown accrued five fouls by the third quarter, keeping him sidelined for part of the second half. That doomed the Celtics the rest of the way.
Anfernee Simons played a personal season-high, 33 minutes, but ended the night a -10. Payton Pritchard logged a similar line: he played a team-high 35 minutes, but finished a team-worst -13. Starters Neemias Queta (-5) and Derrick White (-7) were net-negatives, also, and scored 16 and six points, respectively.
Advertisement:
That is not a winning formula for a Boston team struggling to find its identity without Jayson Tatum.
“Regardless if you’re making or missing shots, I mean, regardless of anything, we’ve just got to come out and play with great energy, great enthusiasm for the game, like, want to win. It just didn’t seem like that was the case tonight,” Brown said. “We’ve got to be the harder-playing team. That can’t be negotiable, and tonight we weren’t. Brooklyn was the harder-playing team and played with more of an edge and they deserve to win tonight. Overall, just a lackluster effort.”
Head coach Joe Mazzulla echoed similar sentiments, but interestingly enough, wasn’t as harsh in his observations.
“They played better than we did, regardless of record,” Mazzulla said. “At our best, we have to play at such a different level physically, mentally, we have to play at a different level to be at our best. If we don’t play at that level, physically, mentally, at our best, we can lose any night to anybody.”
It’s easy to assume that Mazzulla wasn’t as indirect to the team in the locker room postgame, especially given Brown’s outward frustration with his teammates.
Advertisement:
Brown explained that the Celtics have standards, and inferred that the team isn’t living up to them this season.
“At the end of the day, we all got a job to do. We’re all getting paid to do what we love to do. Come ready to play basketball, or you’re doing a disservice,” Brown said. “So everybody got to come here and be ready to do a job and have great energy, enthusiasm, and want to win. That’s what it’s about at the end of the day: Celtic basketball.”
Emphasizing an observed lack of “enthusiasm” in Boston’s play, Brown said he’s focusing on controlling what he can control in his own game.
“Every game is a test. I just take it one game at a time. The schedule is the schedule, and we just got to keep going,” Brown said. “My focus is on how I can better prepare myself. I could not make my teammates better, but we got to have some enthusiasm for the game. At the end of the day, you got to play basketball.”
To comment, please create a screen name in your profile
To comment, please verify your email address
Conversation
This discussion has ended. Please join elsewhere on Boston.com