‘Defense is what we want to set the tone on,’ says Boston’s Jaylen Brown after Nets loss

Justin Quinn
·2 min read
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The Boston Celtics couldn’t hit a shot if their lives depended on it against the Brooklyn Nets on Wednesday night, and it affected their play on both ends of the floor as a rattled Boston squad struggled to stop the Nets on one end while finding themselves unable to score on the other, losing 123 – 104 on their home court of TD Garden.

Injuries did not help the contest, with Robert Williams III and Josh Richardson out with non-COVID illness and star forward Jaylen Brown still clearly affected by his recent hamstring strain, looking much more hesitant on the court than he usually is. Speaking with the media after the game, the Cal-Berkeley product shared his thoughts on what went wrong.

“Obviously, this wasn’t our best game,” he began with a touch of hyperbole.

“We didn’t come out and play with that tenacity that we’ve seen in recent games, for whatever reason,” explained the Georgia native, “but, we’ve got to find it back when on this road trip.”

“I think that defense is what we want to set the tone on, and some of those tough shots discouraged us and things like that. We’ve just got to have a mindset to come out and play basketball, regardless of what happens on both sides of the ball. I think we let some misses dictate how we were going to play. And so we’ve got to be more consistent on both sides and continue to raise our energy level.”

“Tonight was a tough night for us, like I said,” added Brown, “but I think we’ll bounce back.”

If the Celtics want a chance at remaining above .500 during an absolutely brutal stretch of games coming in December, they’ll need to.

But with better help and a return to the defensive style of play that helped them right the early-season struggles the team has hopefully put behind them, it is not beyond their reach.

This post originally appeared on Celtics Wire. Follow us on Facebook!

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