BOSTON — Memorable moments in sports don’t necessarily arrive with fair warning. They don’t always come during crunch time with a game in the balance. Sometimes they show up on a Sunday afternoon in November, early enough in the first quarter that many fans in certain arenas would not have reached their seats in time.
In Boston, where the crowds are typically punctual, the TD Garden seats were full for Jaylen Brown’s unexpected magic show. By the time he knocked down his fifth 3-pointer with 8:26 left in the first quarter of the Celtics’ 107-105 win against the Timberwolves, the fans understood they were witnessing a rare feat. Even before Brown released that shot, fans across the arena could be seen standing up in anticipation of the heat check.
“I had just hit four in a row,” Brown said. “And then, yeah, that one was going up.”
Of course, it was. Brown intended to hunt a shot there regardless of the defense on him. Rudy Gobert must have realized it, too. The whole building sensed that Brown, as hot as he was, would not pass up the chance to splash home another triple. He crossed half court and beelined diagonally to the right wing, likely so that Gobert, who matched up on him in transition, would not be able to pass him off to another defender.
Brown, caught up in the moment, reached deep into his bag for a big-time move. He dribbled between his legs five times in rapid succession, then did it one more time after putting his other leg forward. All of that helped occupy Gobert so that when Brown took one last dribble to set up his jumper, the maneuver created enough space for him to fire a clean shot over the four-time Defensive Player of the Year.
After Brown’s twisting stepback fell through the net, the fans who weren’t already on their feet stood up in unison like they had just witnessed a game-winning basket. This was a different type of exhilaration: an unexpected wave of brilliance at a time in the game when the waters would normally be calm.
“In that time, (Brown) was our only offense,” said Derrick White. “So we just kept finding him.”
JB WITH FIVE STRAIGHT THREES 🥵 pic.twitter.com/Nn1mL6y3hp
— Boston Celtics (@celtics) November 24, 2024
Brown’s fifth straight long ball gave the Celtics a 15-6 lead. He tried to extend the streak to six moments later but air-balled a 27-foot pull-up over Donte DiVincenzo four minutes into the game. The first miss couldn’t take the shine off Brown’s initial flurry.
The rush of 3-pointers started without much hint that it would develop into a memorable one. On the Celtics’ second possession, Julius Randle did not close out hard to Brown in transition. He took advantage of the defense by swishing a 3-pointer early in the shot clock. Less than a minute later, Brown caught the ball in almost the same spot after a Jayson Tatum drive forced the Timberwolves into scramble mode. Brown’s second make barely touched the rim on its way through the hoop.
Brown started pushing the limits after that one. Following a Jaden McDaniels turnover, Tatum found Brown as he crossed half court. He took one dribble and pulled up from several feet behind the arc for his third 3-pointer in as many possessions.
“Especially when he got it going like that,” White said, “just try to find him any way you can.”
Before Sunday, Brown had not experienced much 3-point success this season. After going 3 for 13 from behind the arc during Friday night’s win against Washington, he said he believed he settled too often for long attempts in that game. Including that ugly shooting performance, he entered Sunday shooting a career-worst 28.4 percent on 3-point attempts. The pile of misses couldn’t dent his confidence.
“I feel like I haven’t shot the ball to start off the season as well as I would have liked,” Brown said. “I feel like I’m due for a lot of makes.”
Brown packed five of those makes into a 2:22 stretch of the first quarter. After he sank his first three attempts, the Timberwolves should have been desperate to shut off his faucet. Instead, Randle got stuck behind an Al Horford screen, leaving Brown with plenty of time to knock down his fourth in a row. He then set up the fifth 3-pointer by stealing the ball from Anthony Edwards on a drive. The turnover gave Brown a chance to isolate against Gobert on the other side of the court.
If Brown’s accomplishment came with a downside, it was that the early outburst seemed to disrupt Boston’s rhythm. After sinking his first five 3-pointers, he air-balled his next two, including one attempt that was an ultimate heat check. Following his fifth make, the Celtics missed 11 straight field goal attempts while going scoreless for 5:36. The first points by any of Brown’s teammates came when Jrue Holiday hit a pair of free throws with 2:50 left in the first quarter.
It wasn’t Brown’s fault that his teammates missed all their shots before that, including a couple of easy layups. Still, Joe Mazzulla said Brown put it on himself to help everyone else get back into their usual flow. Shortly after his first miss, he up-faked from the left corner when he easily could have taken another 3-point attempt. By driving to the paint and kicking the ball out to the perimeter, Brown created an open look for White instead.
“Do you have to fight to get a rhythm for others?” Mazzulla said. “Yeah. At the same time, what was cool was I think Jaylen recognized that. I think he passed up another one, I went to him, and he was like, ‘Yeah, I just got to make sure we get our rhythm back as a team.’ And so it’s great to have guys like him that you could do that, but also can point out where it wasn’t a negative impact (of Brown’s flurry), but it was like, ‘Okay, we’ve got to get our offensive rhythm and connectivity there.’”
Joe Mazzulla on Jaylen Brown’s defense in the Celtics’ win over the Timberwolves:
“It’s great to have players of that caliber take defense to another level.” pic.twitter.com/VeVbqQAlrB
— Bobby Krivitsky (@BobbyKrivitsky) November 24, 2024
Brown said he also learned from his first two misses.
“Even though I hit five, still having shot discipline,” Brown said. “I didn’t like six and seven, the next two. I could have been a little bit more patient. It still felt good, no need to rush it. So if I get into that situation again, I’ve got some more good information.”
Brown only made two 3-pointers after the eight-minute mark of the first quarter, but the second one extended Boston’s lead to 107-102 with 1:15 left. He prides himself on contributing in various other ways beyond his scoring. After the Celtics gave up most of a 19-point third-quarter lead, he helped them pick up one final stop to preserve the close victory. Brown said the Timberwolves ran the same out-of-bounds play three or four times, so he knew to pre-switch with Tatum so that they would end up with the right defensive matchups. Brown wanted to guard Edwards on the last play.
“I pre-switched with JT because they wanted to get me off of Ant Man,” Brown said. “So I pre-switched, I switched right to him so I was on the ball (defending Edwards). He’s good going to his left hand but I just wanted to crowd him a little bit, make it tough for him and waste some time. And if he did go up to score, I was going to be able to challenge him at the rim. He kicked it out. I’m not sure if Naz Reid got (his last shot) off, but I think it was a good defensive possession.”
Reid did not release his shot in time to count. It missed anyway.
Jaylen Brown tonight became the 2nd-fastest player in the play-by-play era to make five 3-pointers in a game.
1. Saddiq Bey – 3:27 (4/3/22 at IND)
2. Jaylen Brown – 3:34 (11/24/24 vs MIN)
3. Kevin Love – 3:53 (11/23/16 vs POR)— Celtics Stats (@celtics_stats) November 25, 2024
As close as the game got down the stretch, Brown’s start exceeded the finish in terms of pure impressiveness. On Dec. 8, 2001, Kentucky wing Tayshaun Prince opened a game against UNC with five straight 3-point makes. Like with Brown, the final shot in Prince’s hot streak was the most ambitious. He pulled up from the logo in transition, long before such shots were fashionable, to give the Rupp Arena crowd something to roar about.
Twenty-three years later, that Prince avalanche still stands as the standard for when a player gets hot early. Brown opened the proceedings like Prince, then helped close things for the Celtics, too.
(Photo: Brian Fluharty / Getty Images)
