Jaylen Brown's Career Night Puts Him in Larry Bird’s Company
Anything that associates a basketball player with Larry Bird has to be a special achievement.
Former Cal star Jaylen Brown had tha kind of accomplishment Wednesday night when he scored a career-high 42 points as his Celtics beat the Memphis Grizzlies 126-107.
You have your choice about which aspect of Brown's big night was the most impressive, but let's start with the fact he accomplished his feat in just 29 minutes of court time. Only one other Celtics player scored that many points in that limited time frame. That was Larry Bird, who scored 43 points in a 29-minute display back in 1986..
You can compare Bird's 43-point-game highlights of 34 years ago, shown here. . . .
. . . with Brown's 42-point-game highlights shown here:
When you think of all the famous Celtics, such as Bill Russell, John Havlicek, Paul Pierce, Kevin McHale. Ray Allen, Dennis Johnson, Dave Cowens, Sam Jones, Kyrie Irving, Jo Jo White, and on and on, Brown's accomplishment is rather amazing.
And Brown had to lobby briefly to get to his career high. He was removed from the game with 2:50 left in the third quarter, still a few points shy of his personal mark. At that point, according to Brown, his teammates broke the news.
“They were telling me, ‘Dang, you are right at your career-high, which was 34 points,'” Brown told reporters via Zoom after the game. “I gave Brad a little wink and said, ‘Can I get two more minutes?’ He let me go back out there.”
But was the short time frame in which he achieved his career high the most impressive aspect of his performance?
Was it the fact that Brown led the NBA in total points scored heading into Thursday's action? Probably not because he has played in five games while other top scorers had played fewer. But Brown is still tied for seventh in points per game at 28.0.
Was it the fact that he made 15 of 21 field-goal attempts for a cool 71.4 percent shooting night? Probably not, becasue has shot better than 45 perent in each of his previous four NBA seasons, and shot a respectable 43 percnt in his one season at Cal.
Was it that he made 7-of-10 three-point attempt? Maybe. He has improved his perimeter game over the years and made 38.2 percent of his three-pointers last season and is up to 44 percent this season in a small sample size.
But if you had seen him shoot three-pointers at Cal that 7-for-10 performance from distance would have seemed impossible. Brown made just 29.4 percent of his attempts from beyond the arc at Cal, and that was from a distance of 20 feet, 9 inches in 2016, compared with the NBA three-point distance of 23 feet, 9 inches.
His shooting has improved dramatically, which speaks to Brown's hard work and his intelligence in knowing how to improve his game. However, when asked Wednesday how he had transitioned from a player known for his athleticism to one who can score from long range, Brown said this:
"I always thought I could shoot the ball. I never doubted myself in college. That year I probably didn't shoot the ball as good. I only had one year basically in college, and everybody just jumed the gun. But I always felt I could shoot the ball.and never let myself lose confidence."
His honesty came out when he was asked what he did over the past year to improve his footwork and balance?
"Nothing, to be honest," he said.
Here is Brown's postgame press conference:
The words in the press conference that best personified Brown were these:
"I just try to handle things responsibly."
Cover photo of Jaylen Brown by Gregory Fisher, USA TODAY Sports
Follow Jake Curtis of Cal Sports Report on Twitter: @jakecurtis53
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