With Jayson Tatum sidelined due to COVID-19, the Boston Celtics had a tough week that included back-to-back losses to their Eastern Conference rivals, the Philadelphia 76ers. But on Sunday, they bounced back in a major way, beating the Cleveland Cavaliers 141-103 to get back in the win column.
They did so in large part thanks to Jaylen Brown, who continued his breakout season with a game-high 33 points on a highly efficient 13-of-20 from the field. It’s impressive any time you score that many points, but even more so when you do it in just 19 minutes.
With the Celtics in complete control pretty much right from the opening tip, head coach Brad Stevens took advantage of an opportunity to get his starters some extra rest, so Brown didn’t even check in for the fourth quarter. As a result, he set a new record for the most points scored in fewer than 20 minutes in an NBA game since the start of the shot clock era began back in 1954.
Brown, who also set a new personal best with his fourth straight game of at least 25 points, is now averaging career-highs in both scoring and assists, and is putting up 27.3 points, 5.8 rebounds and 3.5 assists per game on 53.2 percent shooting. He’s made huge strides in multiple aspects of his game, and his efforts are being recognized.
After Sunday’s game, he earned a shoutout from one of Boston’s all-time legends: Bill Russell. The 11-time champion took to Twitter — which he’s surprisingly active on for an 86 year old — to write, “Great playing tonight @FCHWPO keep it going.”
A win, a record and a message from a Hall of Famer. It doesn’t get better than that.
