Jaylen Brown played one of his best games of the season for the Celtics on Saturday night but he also may have made a costly mistake in the defeat. The Celtics star has a friendly relationship with Wolves forward Anthony Edwards, which has led to plenty of banter over the years between the two Georgia natives. However, some banter in Boston’s 119-115 loss to the Wolves on Saturday night helped awaken Edwards from a sluggish start, according to the star.
Brown drilled a turnaround jumper off the glass with 1:54 remaining in the first quarter over Edwards, leading Brown to signal to Edwards he was too small. That gesture was not taken kindly, according to the Wolves star.
“He had 40 so just trying to not let him get a shot off in so many ways,” Edwards told reporters in Minnesota. “I felt like I did a good job on him. He made a tough shot on me one time, kind of told me I was too small. I said that might have been the luckiest shot ever.
“He was making a bunch of tough shots and that’s my boy. I was talking trash with him the whole game and he kind of woke me up after telling me I was too small. It kind of woke me up. I liked that.”
Edwards ended up scoring 32 points over his final 27 minutes of action after Brown’s make, including 14 in the fourth quarter to help the Wolves rally from a double-digit deficit for the victory. Edwards finished the game with 39 points while shooting 50 percent from the field and going 10-of-11 from the free throw line.
Brown had a stellar game himself, finishing with a season-high 41 points, but he couldn’t keep pace with Edwards in the second half, managing just 14 points on 6-of-14 shooting. “As Brown’s production dropped off, the Celtics offense faltered as the visitors mustered just 46 second half points on 36.4 percent shooting from the field after erupting for 69 points in the first half.
The Celtics and Brown will look to bounce back quickly from the loss on Sunday as they face off against the Cavs in Cleveland on the second night of a back-to-back.