Boston Celtics head coach Joe Mazzulla had plenty to say about his star forward Jaylen Brown tieing his career high vs. the Los Angeles Clippers at Intuit Dome on this past Saturday (Jan. 3) evening. From his defense of future Hall of Fame forward Kawhi Leonard to his uber-efficient scoring in the wake of a snub for the NBA’s Player of the Month award, Brown was in rare form vs. the Clippers, and Mazzula opened up about the motivation that sparked the two-way outburst from the Georgia native. “It’s a huge mindset win,” he said via CLNS Media. “The last game of a road trip.”
“We obviously talked about him not getting Player of the Month. And I think all those things combined, a guy like Jaylen, brings out the best in him, and he just wants to compete at the highest level.”
“And we’re always talking about team, team, team, and (the) team is the absolute most important thing,” suggested the Celtics coach.
“But when you have guys that still have a chip on their shoulder and want to be the best and are on the court with other great players, it’s a goal of them to come out on top,” he added. “And I thought he did a great job of that as an individual, but as a team as well.”
As to whether Brown had requested to cover Leonard explicitly, Mazzula said, “Yeah, he did. Yeah — absolutely … since I’ve been here, I get to coach guys that care about winning, care about defense, and care about the team. And so he texted it to me on the plane where we come from Sacramento (vs. the Kings).
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