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BOSTON — In the third quarter of Game 2 in the Eastern Conference finals, Indiana’s Pascal Siakam lobbed a pass that Pacers teammate T.J. McConnell mishandled. A moment was all Jaylen Brown needed. The Celtics star bull-rushed the ball, leaving McConnell in his wake and finishing through Siakam’s foul.
As Brown stood at the stripe, chants usually reserved for Jayson Tatum filled TD Garden: “MVP! MVP!”
It was fitting recognition for Brown, who was 24 hours removed from an All-NBA snub. He scored a game-high 40 points in the 126-110 win, staking the Celtics to a 2-0 lead in a series now bound for Game 3 in Indiana.
“He cares about the right stuff, but I think stuff like that motivates him,” said Celtics coach Joe Mazzulla.
Did the snub motivate Brown’s playoff career high?
“We’re two games from the Finals,” added Brown, “so honestly I ain’t got the time to give a f***.”
He never broached the snub with teammates at morning shootaround, but, “We all felt like, internally, that he should’ve made one of the All-NBA teams, so it was a shame to see that he didn’t,” said Tatum.
As much of a statement as Thursday was for Brown, the night could not have gone worse for Indiana’s Tyrese Haliburton, whose selection to the All-NBA third team was one of several that pushed Brown from the honor this season. In that same third quarter, Haliburton reaggravated the left hamstring injury that sidelined him for 10 games earlier in the season. His status for the rest of the series remains in question.
“We’ll know more tomorrow and even more Saturday,” Pacers coach Rick Carlisle said in response to a question about the status of his point guard, who finished with 10 points and eight assists in 28 minutes.
Haliburton’s selection to the All-NBA team puts him in line for a supermax contract, similar to the one Brown signed last summer, when he became the league’s highest-paid player. The five-year, $286 million extension that Brown received was a matter of timing. He was last year’s only All-NBA selection due for a new deal. The next contract signed by an All-NBA veteran (i.e., Tatum) will trump Brown’s, and so on.
Still, Brown caught…
Source link : https://sports.yahoo.com/celtics-jaylen-brown-shrugs-off-all-nba-snub-with-explosive-game-2-vs-pacers-062552180.html
Author : Yahoo Sports
Publish date : 2024-05-24 06:25:52
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