Jaylen Brown, among other Celtics, has had to make some sacrifices this season. Surrounded by more talent, his scoring has taken a dip in an effort to help the team take the next step. He’s raised his play in other ways, with better playmaking and defense.
But Sunday night was a reminder that despite what the numbers say, Brown is still a premier scorer in the NBA.
With Jayson Tatum out of the lineup, Brown took the rare lead for the Celtics, and he hit a significant career milestone. Brown scored 26 points in three quarters and surpassed 10,000 career points as the Celtics handled the rebuilding Blazers with a 124-107 victory at TD Garden.
Kristaps Porzingis scored 12 points with 10 rebounds and five blocks and Payton Pritchard added 20 points and eight assists off the bench in the Celtics’ fifth consecutive victory. Like in Friday’s narrow win over the Kings, Joe Mazzulla opted to leave a unit of reserves to finish off this win, but unlike two nights prior – when the Celtics blew a 19-point lead and escaped on Xavier Tillman’s game-winning bucket with seven seconds left – the C’s had no problem taking care of business over the 21-win Blazers.
The Celtics led by just four late in the third quarter and by single digits early in the final period before the Celtics ran away with 31-point fourth behind a strong finish from Pritchard and his cast of reserves of Tillman, Oshae Brissett, Sam Hauser and Svi Mykhailiuk. The Blazers, who hung around most of the night with the help of a 53-40 rebounding edge and 21 second-chance points, never threatened. They couldn’t keep up with the Celtics despite another strong effort from old friend Dalano Banton, who finished with 28 points and nine assists and continues to flourish in Portland after being traded at the deadline from Boston.