Jaylen Brown was a hero, goat and victim

I’m still trying to wrap my head around Jaylen Brown’s cold-blooded performance tonight. He scored a career high 34 points on the road in the playoffs.

His 10 4th quarter points propelled the Celtics all the way back from a 20-point deficit.

Down 4 with 90 seconds remaining, the Celtics desperately needed a bucket. Brown responded with a step-back three pointer that didn’t move the net.

Jaylen Brown and Jayson Tatum hitting some ridiculous shots off the dribble to put Boston up by 1 #TwitterNBAShow https://t.co/nf1NnGRGtc pic.twitter.com/38UEgU2Gjt

— Nate Duncan (@NateDuncanNBA) April 22, 2018

That’s some ruthless shit right there.

But forty-five seconds later, Brown made a critical mistake. With the Celtics up one, Brown took an outlet pass from Al Horford and drove to the hoop against several Bucks defenders.

The smart play, the only play there, is to pull it back and run a play. Maybe Brown was thinking 2-for-1. Or maybe he was trying to draw contact (more on that later). Regardless, Brown lost the ball and seconds later, the Celtics lost the lead.

Jaylen’s probably going to replay this sequence in his mind about 500 times tonight. But after watching his stoic post game press conference, I’m convinced he’ll learn from it and move on.

Let’s get to the zebra-striped elephant in the room. Brown was hammered by Khris Middleton on the drive. The hack is indisputable. The lack of a whistle at such a critical juncture is outrageous, egregious and preposterous.

In situations like this, I often unload a barrage of complaints, insults and accusations at the NBA Officials Twitter account. Not today though. Maybe it’s because the officials overlooked a ton of shit in this game. Or maybe I’m just over the moon ecstatic about the future of this team.

Onward and upward.