Jaylen Brown had one of the best games of his career on Saturday. Unfortunately for the Boston Celtics, it wasn’t enough.
The Celtics narrowly dropped the first half of their road back-to-back on Saturday, falling 119-115 to the Minnesota Timberwolves at the Target Center. Boston outscored the Timberwolves by 11 points in the fourth quarter, but its late rally came up just short.
Brown continued his historic early-season scoring barrage, exploding for 41 points on 17-of-32 shooting. He also stuffed the box score with seven assists, six rebounds, five steals and a block.
Much of that production came during the first half for Brown, who racked up 27 points, five rebounds, five assists and three steals. He became the first player in the NBA’s play-by-play era to reach all of those stats before halftime.
While Brown cooled off a bit in the second half, he still finished as the game’s leading scorer over Anthony Edwards, who nearly matched him with 39 points. Edwards was one of six Minnesota players who scored in double figures, emphasizing the considerable disparity in depth between the two rosters.
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Brown had some help from Neemias Queta, who recorded a monster double-double with 19 points and 18 rebounds in his return from injury. Derrick White chipped in 16 points, while Sam Hauser added 14 off the bench.
The Celtics will try to bounce back on Sunday against the Cleveland Cavaliers, who are 12-8. Tip-off is scheduled for 6 pm ET, while Brown will go for his fourth straight game with at least 30 points.
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