Make no mistake, the Celtics crowd showed up for Sunday’s Game 7 ready to roar.
Eventually, so did Jaylen Brown — thanks in part to a punch in the nose.
After the Celtics kept their series against the Philadelphia 76ers alive with a Game 6 win at Wells Fargo Center, Brown now famously challenged the Celtic fans to arrive for Game 7 on Sunday afternoon with more gusto than they’d able to muster in the playoffs thus far.
It seemed like a questionably strategy at the time, but it worked. The fans were the engine that powered the Celts through some rough early going to a blowout 112-88 victory that catapulted them into Eastern Conference Finals against the Miami Heat.
Brown, who endured a James Harden elbow/forearm in the chops, gave the props where they were due.
“Nothing like a shot to the face to wake you right up,” said Brown. “It sparked the Garden. I called the Garden out in the last game and, way to respond. The energy in the building was through the roof. It was amazing. Everybody that was in the building, anyone that was cheering for the Celtics, I felt like we could feel that energy tonight and it definitely carried over. We’re definitely going to need some more of that going forward. That was fun. That was a great basketball environment.”
Like everything else in Sunday’s Game 7, Brown’s performance was overshadowed by Jayson Tatum’s record-setting 51-point outing. But Brown’s day was eventful in its own right.
He did not get off to a great start. Brown clanged the first shot of the game and was 5-for-13 from the floor at one point.
But the Sixers’ Harden helped to get him – and the Celtics – into the game early in the second quarter. With the Sixers up eight points with 8:26 left in the second quarter and seemingly in the mood to close the Garden for the summer, Brown contested a Harden drive in the lane. After losing the ball, the Sixer flailed wildly, catching Brown in the face, drawing blood from his lip. After a review, Harden was called for a flagrant 1 foul, and the rampage of a comeback would soon be on. Less than two minutes later, after Brown hit those two free throws and another basket, the Celts had tied it up.
That wasn’t the only beef Brown had in the second quarter. With 6:50 left, he went into the Sixers bench going after a loose ball and Philly’s Georges Niang gave him a little tug to keep him from getting back into the play. Brown, naturally, didn’t like it. Both were given technical fouls – and Brown didn’t like that, either.
“The intensity was just high. I think it was a loose ball and me and (Harden) were fighting for it and I may have gotten away with a foul on James, but I fell into their bench. I just think with the intensity of the game and the emotions flying around, I think (Niang) thought ‘Maybe I’ll just grab him to slow him down a little bit,’” said Brown. “I don’t think Niang’s a bad guy or anything. I work out with him in the offseason. I just think he got caught up in the intensity of the game. He made a play and I responded to it. I don’t know which way I should have responded to it. But if I didn’t do anything, it probably would have played on. And here comes (referee) Scott Foster. Before he even deciphered the situation, he gives me a tech. I definitely didn’t want a tech in that situation. But somehow, coming out of all that commotion, it ended up being even and it was nothing. No advantage from that…I got a tech, he got a tech and ended up just being a side out. And I think a play like that it should have been a little bit more there.”
The Celts took a three-point lead into the half, but any idea that this might be a nail-biter was obliterated in the third quarter, when the Celts outscored the Sixers, 33-10. That was mostly Tatum’s show, but Brown joined in the fun, hitting a couple of big three-pointers to keep the C’s momentum going. Brown finished with 25 points on 9-for-19 shooting, 3-for-6 from behind the three-point stripe.
Now 6-1 in Games 7, Brown knows there’s a little more to winning these than just Xs and Os. And a little help from your friends doesn’t hurt.
“You’ve got to come with that fire. You can’t be waiting around, waiting to get hit first. You’ve got to throw the first punch and ask questions later,” said Brown. “I think we came out with that type of intensity and I think the crowd carried us. Everybody in the building, we felt you guys tonight, even at the beginning of the game when things were going back and forth, we had some big plays and it just felt like we erupted and we carried it out from there. Games 7s are all about intensity and who wants it the most, diving on the floor, taking an elbow to the face, whatever it takes to win. We came out with that mentality – and we felt like everyone in the Garden had that mentality. That’s what we needed.”
Nobody’s going to argue with Brown about that now.