As he sat at the table for his postgame press conference, Jaylen Brown wasn’t ready to shake it off yet.
Following Monday night’s 121-113 loss to the Knicks at Madison Square Garden in Game 4 of their best-of-seven series, Brown said the Celtics would give themselves the night.
To his credit, Brown wasn’t going to spout some tired, trite next-man-up clichés in that moment. Jayson Tatum, the Celtics’ best player, who’d been brilliant on Monday, was hurt badly. There is no next man who fills those shoes.
At the time, Brown didn’t know that Tatum’s awkward lunge in the fourth quarter had ruptured his right Achilles, but he knew it was bad and that Tatum wasn’t going to just shake it off.
“We’ll take the night and pick our heads up tomorrow,” he said. “Put together a game plan to come out on our own floor to keep this series alive.”
That game plan is going to revolve around Brown. It’s his team now. Al Horford and Jrue Holiday will share some of the leadership. Derrick White and Payton Pritchard will take more shots. But there’s no real doubt. Jaylen Brown is the alpha now. The pack is looking to him for what comes next.
The Celtics should hope it will be a motivator.
How he plays without Tatum will define Brown as a player. His career arc has been constantly pointing up as he’s added more skills and more reliability to his game. But this will be a big ask.
Brown has probably sacrificed both attention and shot volume for the good of the team for several years. But now, there’s no reason to hold back.
That’ll start on Wednesday in Game 5 and will continue into next season.
Brown and Tatum have embraced the successful synergy of their powerful partnership. But Brown has always seemed to bristle a bit at any suggestion that he’s 1B, putting him just behind Tatum’s 1A.
Well, now he’s 1, no attached letter necessary. The Celtics will need the Bill Russell Award winner to play like an MVP.
On Wednesday, Tom Thibodeau will build his game plan around stopping or at least slowing Brown. When the game is on the line in the final possession, the offense is going to run through Brown.
How Brown carries the reload could influence Brad Stevens’ offseason plans. With Tatum out and the Celtics facing luxury-tax-mandated cost-cutting moves, Stevens has to decide just how significantly to reset his roster during the bridge year until Tatum returns.
It could be a small sample size, but if the Celtics pull together and look competitive, Stevens could be more motivated to cobble together a playoff roster next year with Tatum on the shelf.
If they go belly up and get knocked out by the Knicks quickly, he might be tempted to be a little more drastic.
Brown set his own the bar after Monday’s loss.
“I mean, that’s all that can be said. Get ready for the next one, get ready to fight, get ready to come out on our own floor and do what we need to do,” he said. “That’s the goal. It’s still the goal. We’ve got enough in this locker room, so I believe in my guys.”
He’s right about one thing. They are his guys now. Are they enough to keep playing?
That depends on him.
