BOSTON — He is the other J. The All-Star, but not the MVP candidate. The scorer but not the scorer. When high profile trade chatter has come up (Anthony Davis, Kawhi Leonard) it’s been Jaylen Brown, not Jayson Tatum lumped into it.
Brown is still a Celtic—the second-longest tenured Celtic, in fact—and, boy, was Boston glad to have him on Tuesday. Game 2, the Celtics’ season on the line, their best defender, Marcus Smart, on the bench and Brown went off, racking up 25 first-half points (30 overall), dished out six assists and collected five rebounds. He made 11 of his 18 shots, six of his 10 threes and held Celtics-killer Jrue Holiday to 19 points on 7-of-20 in Boston’s 109–86 win.
“JB was locked in,” said Tatum. “He set the tone and that was big for us.”
