Jaylen Brown vents after making history (in a bad way) vs. Clippers originally appeared on NBC Sports Boston
The box score from Wednesday night’s game at TD Garden produced two eye-opening stats.
The first was that the Boston Celtics went 4 for 42 (9.5%) from 3-point range in their 91-82 loss to the Los Angeles Clippers. (More historical context on that number here.) The second was that Celtics star Jaylen Brown finished with 30 points on 13 of 36 shooting — with zero assists.
Celtics-Clippers takeaways: C’s historically bad from deep in loss
Brown — who went 1 for 13 from beyond the arc while trying to carry the load with Jayson Tatum and five other Celtics sidelined — is the first Boston player since Antoine Walker 23 years ago to attempt at least 36 shots without recording an assist.
Per @ESPNStatsInfo, Jaylen Brownâs 36 FGA without an assist is the most for any player since Antoine Walker went 21-for-36 on Jan. 7, 1998.
To be fair to Brown, he set up multiple wide open 3s in the second half, and the fourth in particular â just none of them went in.
— Tim Bontemps (@TimBontemps) December 30, 2021
In Brown’s defense, he could have had as many as eight assists had his teammates knocked down their shots, per ESPN Stats & Info. He didn’t seem upset with Boston’s shot selection, either.
According to @ESPNStatsInfo, Jaylen Brown had eight potential assists tonight â tied for the most by any player who didn’t record an assist in a game this season. Certainly felt that he had around that many while watching live.
— Tim Bontemps (@TimBontemps) December 30, 2021
“I think that we did get a lot of open looks. Despite what the statistics are saying, I don’t think we were forcing shots. I thought we had a lot of open looks that didn’t go down,” Brown said after the game, as seen in the video above.
But when you miss 12 3-pointers and your team scores its lowest point total of the season to drop its third straight game, sometimes you just need to blow off a little steam.
“I think it’s unfortunate timing, because we definitely wanted to respond from last game,” Brown said. “A lot of those guys came out ready to fight, and we just came up short. We just came up f—ing short.
“It’s just a s—-y game, and unfortunate because we wanted to come back and respond after playing so well in Minnesota. But I don’t know what else to say. We didn’t knock enough shots down to win. We played hard, but we ended up with a loss, so that’s it.”
Brown has good reason to be frustrated: The Celtics played with energy and effort Wednesday night, committing fewer turnovers than the Clippers and avoiding a lot of mistakes that have plagued them throughout the season. But there’s always at least one issue that haunts Boston, and on Wednesday night, it was shooting — to a historic degree.