Jaylen Brown leads the Celtics in Recreation 5 win

That was the Jaylen Brown we noticed win the Finals MVP and Jap Convention Finals MVP on the way in which to Banner 18.

Brown was everywhere in the court docket with 26 factors, 12 rebounds and eight assists in Recreation 5. He actually set the tone on the defensive finish by urgent Jalen Brunson 94 ft as he introduced the ball up the court docket similar to he did with Luka Doncic.

“I feel his management got here on the defensive finish,” Joe Mazzulla mentioned after the 127-102 Celtics win. “Simply together with his physicality and presence, I believed the dive into the bench actually modified the sport for us… He was simply nice on all ranges, took it upon himself to protect Brunson, and set the tone and he did that on each ends.”

Derrick White additionally complimented Brown’s management saying, “JB was unbelievable, each side of the ball… He took it upon himself to get us going and simply observe his lead. Nice recreation for 48 minutes and he carried us.”

Brown’s management was wanted, particularly after Jayson Tatum tore his Achilles. “The air sort of left the room after listening to the information with JT,” Brown mentioned. “We didn’t need to exit like that. We didn’t need to give excuses. We didn’t need to come out and quit or simply flip the season in — what all people else would in all probability count on.”

Whereas Brown’s locker room presence set the tone for the Celtics, his play was a significant motive why they received the sport. His passing actually jumped off the display.

He entered Recreation 5 with a damaging help to turnover ratio, with 13 assists to 14 turnovers. Nevertheless, Brown was in management throughout your complete recreation with 12 assists to simply two turnovers.

He’s a little bit rushed right here, however collects himself after shedding the dribble. He scans the court docket and sees a wide-open trailing White who drains the three.

With three Knicks swarming him, Brown is ready to scan understanding somebody is open, lastly throwing a candy cross to Pritchard within the nook and pulling down a 3.

Brown catches the Jrue Vacation cross, noticing that he had Mitchell Robinson on him, that means the Knicks main rim protector isn’t on the rim. He makes the dribble drive proper previous Robinson and when Cities steps as much as assist, he makes the straightforward dump cross to Vacation who lays it in.

Jaylen additionally made the entire straightforward reads tonight. He slowed the sport down, scanned the court docket and infrequently made the straightforward cross that led to an open Celtics shot try. He did not drive it, he let the sport come to him, and the Celtics benefitted from it drastically.

He took the task of guarding Jalen Brunson, he guarded him 94 ft on a bunch of possessions, made the sport actually laborious. Whereas on the opposite finish he was as efficient as ever, among the photographs he was making have been unreal.

The Celtics are going to wish this model of Jaylen Brown if they’ll make their 4th consecutive Jap Convention Finals. As Jaylen mentioned after the sport, “don’t rely us out but.”