bostonglobe.com

Court Sense: Out-of-sync Celtics ☘️

You’re reading Court Sense, a biweekly Celtics newsletter from the Boston Globe.Click here to join the fun.

Welcome back to Court Sense ☘️ A newsletter that was just turned over by the Celtics (again)

Have you ever had a colleague with whom you just have perfect chemistry?

You know that coworker who you just share a wavelength with, like you can read each other’s minds to finish off a project in perfect lockstep.

If so, could you give some words of advice to Jaylen Brown and Derrick White?

Perhaps the Celtics’ two best players in the absence of Jayson Tatum, Brown and White were at the center of a disastrous final minute in Portland on Sunday, combining for three of Boston’s turnovers in the last 70 seconds of a self-inflicted loss on the road.

Brown had been the star again up until crunchtime, pouring in 27 points in the first half and finishing with 37 on the night — that made it nine straight games with 30-plus points for Brown, tying Larry Bird for the longest such streak in franchise history.

The Trail Blazers responded with double teams and blitzes and traps, a move that really paid off when it counted. (Here are all three turnovers, in case you want to follow along.)

With the Celtics trailing by a point and 1:15 to play in the fourth, Portland blitzed Brown near halfcourt as White tried to set a screen. Shaedon Sharpe stripped Brown and got out in transition, Brown fouled him, and Sharpe hit one of two free throws to make it a 2-point game.

The next turnover was perhaps the ugliest. Brown and White flubbed a fairly simple pass near halfcourt and gave it up on a backcourt violation (Portland extended the lead to 4 points a few seconds later).

White atoned for that mistake with a big 3-pointer to cut the lead back to 1 with 45 seconds to go. But with the Celtics going small, a missed 3-pointer led to a battle for the rebound between 7-foot-2 Donovan Clingan and 6-foot-not-as-many Hugo Gonzalez, which may as well have been a battle on the boards between Tatum and his son Deuce.

The ensuing and-one gave Portland a 4-point lead that the hosts would see out, but not before White and Brown conspired to throw the ball away one more time with 21 seconds to go.

And just for a little extra fun, Payton Pritchard threw it away one more time on a botched alley-oop with the game already decided, putting the exclamation point on a last-minute meltdown for the Celtics.

For those keeping score at home, Boston’s last seven possessions went: missed 3-pointer, missed 3-pointer, turnover, turnover, made 3-pointer, turnover, turnover.

It was 70 seconds out of Bob Ryan’s basketball nightmares.

Of course, the Celtics could’ve been over the hills and far away long before all that nonsense if anyone other than Brown could’ve bought a bucket in the first 47 minutes or so. Brown’s 37 points were matched by the other four starters (White, Pritchard, Jordan Walsh, and Neemias Queta) combined, a reminder that Brown can’t do everything even amid the best scoring stretch of his career.

Jaylen Brown had 37 points in the Celtics' loss on Sunday.

Jaylen Brown had 37 points in the Celtics' loss on Sunday.Amanda Loman/Associated Press

It was a particularly frustrating loss for Boston following a four-game win streak. This road trip (mostly) out West looked poised to give the Celtics a chance to go on a run against a bunch of likely non-playoff teams after slugging it out with contenders every few days since Thanksgiving.

Boston at least held up its end of the bargain on Friday night in Indiana, overturning a 15-point first-quarter deficit to hang 140 points on the Pacers in a win.

Brown had an even 30 points in that one but got a little more help from Pritchard and White, who combined for 50 in Boston’s fourth straight win.

Speaking of getting Brown a little help — remember the whole thing about his hair at the start of the season?

In case you need a refresher, videos circulated in the early weeks of the season showing suspicious black smudges left on opponents’ jerseys after making contact with the top of his head.

The Celtics’ star caught some heat online for seemingly augmenting his thinning hair with spray (or something to that effect) that was very literally rubbing off on opponents.

To his credit, Brown has rolled with the punches rather well, and last week he poked fun at himself in an ad for hair growth supplement company Nutrafol.

“A lot of that stuff is attached to mental health, hair, hair loss or hair thinning, a lot of men and women go through that,” Brown said over the weekend. “And that is connected to, like, self-confidence and a lot of other things that are attached to mental health. So being able to have some of my own experiences and my own testimony that helps others be able to deal with certain things and be more open about it — I’m pleased to do that because at the end of the day, life is about adversity and just navigating mentally, how to get through the ups and downs of life.

“So [if] people can laugh or cope through some of my own experiences, I’m OK with that.”

Good on you, Jaylen. Balding men like us need the support.

ICYMI 🗞️

Jaylen Brown is averaging a career-best 29.7 points per game this season.

Jaylen Brown is averaging a career-best 29.7 points per game this season.Amanda Loman/Associated Press

Jaylen Brown embraces his marketability, opens up about hair loss issue with Nutrafol ad

By Gary Washburn

Jaylen Brown expects this of himself, so there is no surprise. There is no glee. After Sunday’s Celtics loss to the Trail Blazers, Brown had no desire to reflect on his 37-point outing, which tied a team record.

Brown and the great Larry Bird are the lone Celtics to ever score 30 or more points in nine consecutive games. Brown will go for No. 10 on Tuesday at Delta Center against the Jazz, and enter as the Eastern Conference Player of the Week after the league acknowledged his dominant run.

“Just playing my game, that’s really it. Just playing my game,” Brown said when asked about his success. “I get to take the shots that I feel comfortable with. I get to attack when I want. So it’s more like a rhythm thing. So I’m in a really good rhythm. The pace is kind of around me, so I’m able to kind of dictate where, when I want to go, what spots I want to get to throughout the course of the year.”