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Brown’s Energy Gives Boston a Boost in Philly

addByline("Taylor C. Snow", "Celtics.com", "taylorcsnow");

PHILADELPHIA – Jaylen Brown has seen his minutes drop considerably since Jae Crowder returned from his ankle sprain two weeks ago, but the Celtics rookie earned a chance to prove himself during crunch time Saturday night in Philadelphia, and he delivered.

Brown played 15 minutes – seven of which came during the fourth quarter of a neck-and-neck battle with a hungry 76ers team.

While Brown’s stats did not necessarily jump off the page – four points, two rebounds, one assist and one block – his energy kept him on the court and helped propel Boston to a 107-106 win.

Brown delivered a couple of much-needed, high impact plays that sparked the Celtics late in the game. The first was a thunderous fast break dunk that put the C’s up 86-83 with 7:11 left in the fourth. The second was a blocked shot at around the six-minute mark, which led to a Jonas Jerebko transition 3 that put Boston ahead by seven points.

“Those plays helped us out,” Brown said after the game. “I think it helped us pull the game out in the end, so that was great.”

Brown’s defense in particular stood out to Brad Stevens and the rest of the Celtics. The young forward consistently made the right decisions, and even when he slipped up, he was able to regain his composure.

“He was very active,” said Stevens. “Even when he got beat on a couple of plays, he stayed in the play and made some aggressive recoveries.”

Avery Bradley added that Brown “played amazing tonight. He played great defense. He wasn’t thinking. He was just out there playing basketball.”

Brown has learned that in order to play great, he has to have a no-think, just-play attitude like that one that Bradley alluded to. He admits that at first that mindset was difficult to adopt, which is understandable considering that he’s a 20-year-old rookie trying to earn a role. But as he's progressed through the first few weeks of his inaugural campaign, he's begun to feel much more comfortable on the court.

“A lot of times you try to tell yourself not to mess up and it’s counteractive,” said Brown. “You’re trying so hard not to do the wrong thing. But at the end of the day, it’s basketball; I’ve been playing this for a long time, even though I’m young. So just go out there and have fun. I know what I’m supposed to do, so just do it.”

Brown says that mindset has allowed him to lose all hesitation and just play confidently.

“If I make a mistake, I make a mistake… whatever,” said Brown. “But at the end of the day I just gotta play, and that’s how you grow.”

The faster Brown grows, the more likely Stevens will call his name in situations like Saturday night when Boston needed a boost off the bench.

“He’s had some ups and downs because now we’re healthy, so now [his] playing time is going to decrease a little bit that Jae is back,” said the coach. “But there’s going to be games like this where we need him to play extended minutes, and I thought he did a pretty good job.”

Performances like these will give Stevens confidence to throw Brown back into the fire if the Celtics suffer more injuries down the line. And if that happens, Brown’s teammates believe he’ll have no issue sliding in to fill a role.

“Anything can happen at any time,” said Bradley, “and for him to be able to be put in that situation now – in the Playoffs, whatever it is – if we have an injury, when he’s put in that situation again, he’ll know what to expect. So I think it’s a good opportunity for him to be able to be in there at the end of a close game like this.”

For now, it’s expected that Brown will continue to play limited minutes behind Crowder, but that doesn’t disappoint the young rookie.

“I can’t control that,” said Brown, whose minutes have dropped from 18.3 per game to 6.8 per game since Crowder’s return. "I just control what I can control.”

What he can control is how he utilizes the minutes he earns, and if he plays his cards correctly, he should be given many chances to shine in the future.

“I just gotta come out in the minutes I [earn] and just play my hand as best as I can; take advantage of what I do good, and try to impact this team as much as possible.”