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Jaylen Brown scored 50 points in the OT win.
Jaylen Brown had a 50 point performance for the Celtics in a win over the Magic. (1:45)
11:11 PM
It appeared the Boston Celtics would start their new year off badly, as they were down by 44 minutes at the time.
Jaylen Brown decided that wouldn't happen. The Celtics' 116-111 overtime victory over the Magic was thanks to Brown, who became the seventh Celtics player to score 50 points in a regular-season game.
"We needed to win," said Brown, who finished with a career-high 50 points to go along with 11 rebound, 4 assists, 2 blocks and a steal in 46 minutes. No way we could have lost this game. I wanted to win for everyone.
It didn't look like Brown would get the win he wanted when Boston was down 96-87 with 4:20 left in regulation after a layup by a young player. The game completely changed after Celtics coach Ime Udoka called timeout.
The Celtics finally made some shots after Boston began flying around, forcing the young Magic team into several costly mistakes down the stretch. Brown scored 12 points in their 18-4 run to end regulation and force overtime.
Marcus Smart said that Boston was able to rally because they did what they did in the first quarter. Taking what they give us is notSettling, letting the game come to us. Not trying to force it, just trying to allow the mistakes to be made for us. We let the game come to us.
It wasn't pretty, but we came out with the win because we kept our cool.
He looked up at the end of regulation and realized he had 47 points after the Celtics had come back all the way. Only six other players in Celtics history had done it before him, and his 3-pointer with
Brown was the one who carried the load for Boston, but he finally got some help in overtime from Dennis Schroder, who scored half of Boston's 16 points in the extra session.
The NBA is a game of runs, according to the player who scored 21 points and made 7 assists in his first game back from the league's health and safety protocols.
It's not easy to win in the NBA. Sometimes it happens. It shouldn't happen, but it does. I think we did a great job in the second quarter of being up 13 and down 14. Everybody stepped up and we got stops. I think we went on a run and closed it out in overtime.
The game on Sunday was a good example of how the season has gone for Boston. The Celtics have been on a roller coaster since the beginning of the season, with some impressive highs and some devastating lows, including a couple of awful losses in the past seven days against the LA Clippers and Minnesota Timberwolves.
Injuries and COVID-19 have ravaged the roster of Boston, which has dealt with a never-ending series of players going in and out of the lineup. For the past four games, the Celtics have lost their leading scorer, Tatum.
The revolving door of players has cost the team the ability to establish any sort of consistency. If Boston beats the San Antonio Spurs on Wednesday, it will be a.500 team halfway through the season.
There are reasons for optimism. They were able to escape from a brutal December schedule that saw them play a full slate of teams with.500-or- better records, and entered Sunday with the sixth-easiest schedule remaining in the NBA.
If the Celtics can't escape from the inconsistency that has plagued them all season, then Boston's hopes of finally getting an extended stretch of play with a full roster won't mean much. It took a historic performance from Brown on Sunday to get the win.
When asked why Boston tends to play better when it has fallen behind, Brown said he didn't know. It's not good if that's the case. We're trying to forget about 2021. It's a new year.
We're trying to start on the right note. We got a win in the first game, but we have to continue to build good habits as we welcome guys back into the lineup. I think we can win some games here.
