BOSTON — After Boston Celtics star Jaylen Brown produced the first triple-double of his career in Boston’s 99-75 victory over the New York Knicks here at TD Garden on Saturday night, he shot down the idea that he and Jayson Tatum can’t have an effective long-term partnership.
“I think we can play together,” Brown said after finishing with 22 points, 11 rebounds and 11 assists against the Knicks, who had stunned the Celtics two days earlier at Madison Square Garden thanks to an RJ Barrett banked-in, buzzer-beating 3-pointer. “We have played together well for the majority of our career and things like that. The last year or so hasn’t gone as expected, but I think a lot of the adversity that we’re kind of going through now is going to help us grow and get better in the future.
“If we get over this slump and continue to learn, I think there’s a lot of good basketball on the other side of this. I only can control what I can control. I understand everybody has to do their jobs, but me and JT talk. We talked after the game, communicated with each other and things like that. So we’re on the same page. I get where all the other frustration comes from, but as long as I’m on the same page with him and he’s on the same page with me, that’s where we’re most focused on. So tonight we wanted to come out and get a win and we did it.”
It’s been a second straight disappointing season for the Celtics, who are 19-21 heading into Monday’s game here against the Indiana Pacers, which will officially end the first half of Boston’s season. The Celtics are now 55-57 since the start of last season — after a stretch of three trips to the Eastern Conference finals in four seasons.
When Brown, who is averaging 24.1 points per game, and Tatum, who is averaging 25.5 points per game, share the court for Boston this season, the Celtics are 4.6 points per 100 possessions better than their opponents in over 500 minutes. But after Boston has consistently been among the top…
Source : espn
