The image of the game may have belonged to a bloodied Kristaps Porzingis, but the performance of the night belonged to Jaylen Brown.
With the other half of his famed J&J partnership, Jayson Tatum, sidelined by injury, Brown rose to the full extent of his superstar status Wednesday at TD Garden. Channeling the form that saw him win last season’s Finals MVP award, Brown carried the Celtics from the opening tip through to the finish line, his 36 points leading the way to a 109-100 win over the Magic in Game 2 of their opening-round playoff series.
Porzingis ended up the poster boy for the game’s physicality thanks to a gash to the forehead that required five stitches but that didn’t prevent him from returning to the floor, it was Brown who truly set the tone while Tatum missed his first career postseason game.
How so? Brown scored seven of the Celtics first 10 points, seven of their final 14, and in between, busted open a slim 3-point halftime lead by starting the third quarter with back-to-back three-pointers. By the time he came out of the game for good with just under a minute to play, his team high 41:41 of playing time earned both sustained applause from the crowd and a gauntlet of high-fives from the bench.
“I thought he was aggressive, getting to his spots, making tough shots, but they couldn’t stop him,” said Payton Pritchard, the newly-crowned NBA Sixth Man of the Year. “We needed him tonight. We needed every bucket he gave us.
“He’s a high-level player, top of the game. He brought it tonight and he’s ready to go full throttle.”
Pritchard’s phrasing is noteworthy, considering how much Brown had been forced to dial back his game as the regular season wore down, getting injections for pain while managing an injury to his right knee. For him to explode the way he did Wednesday, hitting from deep, driving the lane, finding open teammates and running the floor with apparent ease would be good news in any game. But to do so after all he’s gone through physically? Not only does it show the wisdom of his approach to getting ready for the playoffs, but how much each and every one of these postseason games means to him.
When it became clear that Tatum was going to have to take the night off, Brown went to coach Joe Mazzulla with a simple message: I’m here to do whatever the team needs for us to win.
“Obviously JT is the offensive leader of our team and we all kind of play off of him, but on any given night I can rise to the occasion,” Brown said. “I just do what the team needs me to do. I’ve always taken that mentality.”
But if you think that meant just going out there and chucking up shots, Brown was far more than a single-minded scorer looking to cover for Tatum’s absence. While his aggressiveness was evident from the opening tip, it was his efficiency that ultimately jumped off the page — 12 of 19 from the field including 5 of 7 from 3-point range and seven of his eight free throws. Throw in 10 rebounds and five assists, and he was everything the Celtics needed.
Everything he knew he could be, even as that ailing knee thwarted his plans down the stretch of the regular season. But the work he did to regain his strength, the patience he showed in allowing time to heal, he poured it all into Wednesday’s game.
“You just trust his mindset, really the warrior mentality that he has, he knows his mind, he knows his body and he can take it to another level mentally and physically,” Mazzulla said. “He did that for the team on both ends of the floor, especially to start that third quarter for us.”
Obviously the Celtics would prefer to have their full roster at full strength for every game. But after the hard fall Tatum took in Sunday’s playoff opener, he was officially ruled out just prior to tipoff, trading in his uniform for a natty cream outfit that was flanked by a dark black brace over his right wrist and thumb. For the Celtics to pull away without him can actually help them in the long run, not only getting him some important rest for what they anticipate to be another long playoff run, but reminding them they can win games in various ways.
One of those ways is by climbing on Brown’s back.
“At the end of the day, he’s going to do whatever it takes for us to win,” Mazzulla said. “He didn’t come in saying he had to get 36 points, just whatever it takes to win, and that’s what he told me yesterday.
“Regardless of whether a guy is in or out, everyone is playing their role, and what’s expected of them changes each night, whether you’re playing different lineups, different positions, different sub patterns, whatever the case may be. I know he comes into every game with an open mind to do whatever it takes to win.”
Tara Sullivan is a Globe columnist. She can be reached at [email protected]. Follow her @Globe_Tara.
