Brown laments C’s ‘unacceptable’ performance in Game 2 loss to Cavs

Brown laments C’s ‘unacceptable’ performance in Game 2 loss to Cavs originally appeared in NBC Sports Boston

BOSTON – There’s no sugarcoating it: Game 2 of the Eastern Conference semifinals against the Cleveland Cavaliers marked one of the Boston Celtics’ worst performances of the 2023-24 season.

The C’s in a row his dominant Game 1 victory common deflating 118-94 defeat in front of his fans. They shot an uncharacteristic 41.3 percent from the floor and 22.9 percent from 3-point range, while allowing the Cavs to make 54.7 percent of their shots — 46.4 percent from beyond the arc.

Unsurprisingly, this didn’t sit well with Celtics star Jaylen Brown.

“I think it was just a bad game,” Brown said when asked if Boston’s struggles were due to a lack of execution or effort. “Obviously, we didn’t shoot well tonight, but defensively it was an unacceptable performance. I think that’s where we look at it and I’m most upset. Defensively, we gave up 118 points and on top of that, we lost the rebound battle, so we didn’t help ourselves this night.”

Cleveland scored 60 points in the paint, including 22 of 30 first-quarter points. Later, the Cavs caught fire from 3-point range while Boston went ice cold, shooting 7 of 10 in the third quarter while the C’s missed all eight of their attempts.

Celtics coach Joe Mazzulla said in his postgame press conference that the defensive issues were a byproduct of the team’s offensive struggles. Brown agreed, again using the “U” word to describe the team’s performance on both ends of the court.

“Overall, maybe we missed a few shots and let that translate. It’s the playoffs, this can’t happen,” Brown said. “I don’t care if you’re missing shots, you have to protect the guy on the other side. This allows you to miss more shots if you are playing defense, but you can’t miss shots and then allow them to hit. on the other side. This was unacceptable.”

The Celtics’ 22.9 3-point shooting percentage was their lowest since Feb. 27 against the Philadelphia 76ers, when they were shooting just 22.7 percent from deep — their worst 3-point shooting performance. season points. Those misses allowed Cleveland — particularly Donovan Mitchell (29 points, 10-19 FG) — to wreak havoc in transition.

Boston hopes to bounce back like it did after losing Game 2 of its first-round series against Miami. (The Celtics won Game 3 by 20 points and won the series in five games.) Brown hopes to make up for the “unacceptable” effort.

“You learn from it, take it on the chin and go out and do your best for the next game,” he said. “Obviously, this was an unacceptable performance. We need to be ready to respond.”

Game 3 in Cleveland is set to tip off at 8:30 pm ET on Saturday. Coverage starts with Celtics pregame live at 7:30 pm on NBC Sports Boston.