“We failed. I failed. We let the whole city down,” said Boston Celtics forward Jaylen Brown to the media after the Celtics lost Game 7 of the 2023 East finals to the Miami Heat, falling short in their near-historic comeback attempt from a 3-0 series deficit. . “Just a terrible game when my team needed me the most.”
That his star teammate Jayson Tatum turned his ankle considerably on the first play of the game was not lost on the Georgia native despite his admitted shortcomings in filling in for Tatum’s diminished ability on the court. “JT hurt his ankle on the first play of the game and you could see it swelling up on him,” explained Brown.
“He couldn’t move out there. It was tough on him. My team turned to me to make plays and I came up short.”
But it wasn’t just Brown who fumbled perhaps the most important game of his career to that point — only Derrick White and Tatum joined him in double-figure scoring, with no one providing consistent defensive play throughout the game as well.
“Offensively, it just seemed like we couldn’t hit a shot,” he added on a night that saw Boston produce one of its worst scoring nights all season long from beyond the arc in terms of efficiency. “We had a bunch of good looks and nothing went in. We all have to sit back and reflect on that,” said Brown.
And now, they will have an uncomfortable amount of time to do so.
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Story originally appeared on Celtics Wire