Jaylen Brown, Joe Mazzulla explain Brown’s first-half benching

Boston Celtics

“The team kind of feeds off me, I know that, so I gotta be better. Joe [Mazzulla] is just holding me to a higher standard.”

The Celtics improved to 8-7 after a 113-99 victory over the Brooklyn Nets Tuesday night, the first time they’ve been above .500 all season.

This game didn’t feel comfortable for Boston against a struggling Nets team though, as it was a one-point game at halftime.

The Celtics’ slow start went hand-in-hand with Jaylen Brown only playing 10 minutes in the first half. He went into halftime with six points along with multiple turnovers, and found himself on the bench for long stretches.

He is aware of this poor first-half performance on Tuesday though, and agrees that if he isn’t playing well then putting him on the bench is the right play.

“I was just playing like s***,” Brown told reporters after the game. “Turning the ball over, et cetera. Took a minute for me to figure it out, but I kind of picked it up to close the game.”

While he was able to turn things around in the second half, Brown knows that he will need to improve on this performance as the season progresses. With Jayson Tatum sidelined with a ruptured Achilles, the Celtics have looked to Brown to be often be the first option offensively.

“The team kind of feeds off me, I know that, so I gotta be better,” Brown continued. “Joe [Mazzulla] is just holding me to a higher standard.”

Brown eventually found the flow of the game, and ended up scoring a game-high 29 points on 9-of-19 shooting, including a three-pointer in the clutch to extend the Boston lead.