Home Basketball Jaylen Brown of the Celtics blames his team’s 22-point collapse against the Cavs

Jaylen Brown of the Celtics blames his team’s 22-point collapse against the Cavs

Basketball — 03/07/2024

This tight setback was Boston’s first in almost a month, and it came in an especially unpleasant manner. The Celtics led by 16 points entering the fourth quarter, and with nine minutes remaining, they had extended their lead to 22 points over a Cavs team missing five-time All-Star Donovan Mitchell.

However, the Celtics went cold at the worst possible time, scoring only 17 points over the final 12 minutes. In contrast, Cavaliers forward Dean Wade came off the bench and outscored the Green Team by an incredible 20 points in the fourth quarter alone.
Jaylen Brown looking sad/disappointed on a Cleveland city background
Following the disheartening loss, no one was panicking about the Celtics. However, 2024 All-Star Jaylen Brown was clearly concerned by his team’s late-game effort and mentality, according to Jared Weiss of The Athletic.

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“Everybody’s gonna have their perspective on it. Mine is that’s what happens when you don’t match the gas,” he said. “This is a mentality loss, I think.”

Jaylen Brown started the last period with 21 points and sadly concluded with the same number. He played a little more than five minutes in the fourth quarter and took zero shots.

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Despite a significant cold stretch in the fourth, Boston nearly regained the lead. With 36 seconds remaining, centre Kristaps Porzingis scored a key and-one to put the C’s back ahead. On the other end, they nearly made a game-winning stop before Wade’s putback slam gave Cleveland a 105-104 advantage.

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Boston had one more possession with 19 seconds remaining, but it came to naught after star Jayson Tatum missed a possible game-winning jumper. Even though the refs initially felt he was fouled while shooting, they overturned the major decision, leaving Boston with very no time on the next jump ball.

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The Celtics have often struggled to hold leads, but this has not been the case during the 2023-24 season. Boston will attempt to break that trend before the playoffs begin in April, since the team is still 48-13 overall and first in the Eastern Conference.

Dean Wade scores 20 in fourth, Cavs rally to stun Celtics and end Boston's 11-game winning streak | Fox 59 

And if the Celtics truly want to rebound, there is no better moment than Thursday night’s game against the reigning champion Denver Nuggets. Nikola Jokic, the 2023 Finals MVP, and co-star Jamal Murray outperformed Tatum and Brown the previous time they faced in January, when Denver defeated the Celtics 102-100, handing them their first home loss of the season.