Celtics’ Jaylen Brown delivers blunt takeaway from brutal Nets loss
Boston Celtics star Jaylen Brown doesn’t really sugarcoat things. Even before his now 10-season NBA career, he was never apt to water down the truth in the hopes of appeasing others. And following a 113-105 loss at the hands of the struggling Brooklyn Nets on Friday night, Brown let his blunt (but honest) thoughts about the disappointing defeat be known.
“Come ready to play, or don’t come at all,” Brown replied when asked what his takeaway from the upset was. “That’s my whole thing. We got to come ready to play. We just went through the motions today. I don’t understand it.”
The Celtics led their Atlantic Division foe by six points at the end of the first quarter, yet their advantage never grew past that. Instead, the Nets dropped a whopping 40 points in the second quarter to gain a nine-point lead at halftime.
“We need to play with an edge, defensively and offensively,” Brown said. “You got to be the harder playing team, that can’t be negotiable. And tonight we weren’t.”
Boston’s defensive issues continued in the third quarter, as Brooklyn’s lead ballooned to 15 points while Brown was sidelined for the final 5:52 of the period due to foul trouble. The four-time All-Star returned in the fourth quarter and helped the C’s cut the deficit down to four points with 4:18 remaining.
Nets forward Michael Porter Jr. immediately countered, though. After the Celtics made it 99-95, he recorded 13 of his 33 points in that crucial span. Boston had no offensive or defensive answer for his late-game explosion.
“Regardless if you’re making or missing shots, regardless of anything, we just got to come out and play with great energy, great enthusiasm for the game,” Brown stated. “Like, want to win. It just didn’t seem like that was the case tonight.”
Why Celtics’ loss to Nets wasn’t, and can’t be, the norm for them
Friday night was a bit of an outlier for the Celtics. For a majority of the young season, they’ve played with a lot of effort and care. In fact, they beat the Nets in New York just three days prior via a strong fourth quarter filled with hustle plays.
Brown didn’t see that same energy during the rematch.
“At the end of the day, we all got a job to do,” he began. “We all get paid to do what we love to do. Come ready to play basketball, or you’re doing a disservice.”
With star forward Jayson Tatum sidelined with a ruptured Achilles, the Celtics can’t afford to approach any game without the utmost effort. They simply don’t have the talent to take it easy on select days.
Brown knows this, and the longest-tenured Celtic wanted to remind everybody what donning the green and white requires night in and night out.
“Everybody got to come and be ready to do their job and have great energy, enthusiasm and want to win,” he said. “You know, that’s what it’s about at the end of the day — Celtics basketball.”
Since Friday happened to be an NBA Cup game, the C’s are unlikely to advance in the annual tournament. Boston is 1-2 in Cup play with a point differential of minus-20, so it’ll need a big win over the red-hot Detroit Pistons on Wednesday afternoon for even a slight chance of making it out of East Group B.
Cup standings aside, the Celtics are 8-8 overall after falling to the Nets for the first time since March of 2023. It doesn’t get any easier for the Green Team either, as they face five teams in a row that all qualified for the playoffs last season.
Ironically, the C’s square off next with the one squad they eliminated in the previous postseason: the Orlando Magic. The Celtics and Magic are 1-1 against each other during the 2025-26 campaign, with the tiebreaker coming Sunday afternoon.
If the Celtics want to prevail, they’ll have to heed Brown’s warning and come ready to play. Otherwise, they may start to spiral against an unrelenting gauntlet of opponents, which is something an undermanned team might not recover from.
Jaylen Brown clears air on longtime wrist injury, ‘no left hand’ jokes
During some of the lowest moments of Jaylen Brown’s career, criticism was directed his way and fans poked fun at how he had “no left hand” dribbling the ball. Those jokes started after the 2023 East Finals, when the Celtics were upset to the Heat in seven games. Brown also had a miserable Game 7, taking the blame for the team coming up short.
Brown addressed that criticism on his Twitch channel, FCHWPO, where he’s spent time connecting with fans. He addressed a variety of topics recently on a livestream, including the left hand jokes and shedding more light on a longtime wrist injury.
“You got me,” Brown said. “I (expletive) tore (a ligament in my wrist) — most of the time, it’ll be Celtics fans saying that and they know I tore (it). I missed the whole playoffs, etc. Then I got surgery. And then I re-injured it again that year in that playoffs (in 2022). I never said anything publicly. I never will because when I go out there, I give you what I got. I don’t like making no excuses."
Brown referenced the time he missed the end of the 2020-21 season due to a left wrist injury. Back then, it was reported that he tore a scapholunate ligament in his left wrist and needed surgery. It was a tough ending to a breakout season for Brown, who averaged 24.7 points per game and was named an All-Star for the first time in his career.
Future details from Brown about the left wrist injury are new. Brown re-injuring the wrist in the playoffs the following year also didn’t come out at the time.
“It’s never going to be the same,” Brown said. “Some days, it feels great. Some days, it feels terrible. Some days, I could feel the weather — I can know a storm is coming because of how my wrist is feeling. It is what it is. It don’t bother me. I go left more than y’all favorite players. I’ve dunked on people with my left hand. Some of your favorite players never use their off-hand.”
While Brown hasn’t spoken about his left wrist specifically, he has played through other injuries. Just last season, Brown needed surgery to repair a partially torn meniscus in his right knee. Brown endured a tough season where injuries slowed him down, which started with a hip flexor issue early in the year.
Brown has used Twitch and his livestreams this season to be able to express himself more while connecting with fans. He’s had guests on his streams, like actor Bill Nye during Celtics media day. He’s also watched film and had funny livestreams poking fun at his hairline. This time, he used it to talk about his wrist issues and some of the adversity he’s faced in his career.
“I don’t know what y’all dealing with in the chat,” Brown said. “I don’t know what adversity y’all got. I just want to tell you: It’s never too big to overcome. ... It’s all about growth. It’s why the sun shines every day because people everybody grows when the sun shines."
