With Jayson Tatum away due to COVID-19, the Boston Celtics had a tough week that included consecutive defeats to their Eastern Conference rivals, the Philadelphia 76ers. But on Sunday, they recovered in an important way, beating the Cleveland Cavaliers 141 to 103 to return to the winning column.
They did it largely thanks to Jaylen Brown, who continued his breakout season with 33 points, the game record, 13 out of 20 points on the highly efficient pitch. It’s impressive when you score so many points, but even more so when you do it in just 19 minutes.
With the Celtics in control from the start, coach Brad Stevens took the opportunity to give his players an extra break, so Brown didn’t even check in for the fourth period. As a result, he set a new record for most points scored in less than 20 minutes in an NBA game since the kick-off era began in 1954.
Brown, who also set a new personal record with his fourth consecutive game of at least 25 points, is now getting the best average of his career in markings and assists and is placing 27.3 points, 5.8 rebounds and 3.5 assists per game with 53.2 percent of pitches. He has made great strides in various aspects of his game and his efforts are being recognized.
After Sunday’s game, he won recognition for one of Boston’s all-time legends: Bill Russell. The 11 times champion took to Twitter – in which he is surprisingly active for an 86-year-old man – to write, “Great game tonight @FCHWPO continues.”
A victory, a record and a message from a Hall of Famer. It doesn’t get any better than that.