Jaylen Brown turned it around and demolished the Heat late in Game 5

BOSTON -- There were points early Game 5 of the Eastern Conference Finals where it looked like Ime Udoka would have to bench Jaylen Brown. The Celtics swingman was that bad to start the game.

Then he came out and totally redeemed himself in the second half, leading the Celtics to a 93-80 victory to put Boston one win away from the NBA Finals.

To put it lightly, Brown was abysmal to start the game. He had four of Boston's six turnovers and shot just 1-for-4 for three points in the opening quarter. At one point, Udoka subbed him out because Brown was giving the ball to the Heat nearly every time he touched it. (Or at least it seemed that way.) He was letting Miami defenders poke the ball away, and he looked like he was in desperate need of some Stickum whenever he dribbled.

Udoka's message for Brown was simple: Stop dribbling into crowds, and stop letting them poke the ball away. 

Brown took it to heart, because he didn't have another turnover the rest of the way. And then in the second half, he found his shot.

After hitting just two of his seven shots in the first half, Brown got into his groove in the third. He hit three of his six attempts, including his final two shots of the quarter to give Boston an 11-point lead heading into the fourth.

Then he drained a three to start the final quarter. And then another. And another. Brown shot 5-for-6 in the fourth to score 13 points, and he dropped the hammer on the win with an emphatic dunk with 5:16 left in the game: 

Brown shot 8-for-12 overall and 3-for-5 from three in the second half, finishing with a game-high 25 points. After the win, he said that he didn't really change much out of halftime.

"Same player, just had to get settled in. That's it," Brown said at the podium in Miami. "As the game wears on, some of that energy and some of that intensity starts to wear off, so the game opens up a little bit. It opened up for me in the second half. 

"I didn't want to get down or look in the past and think the game was over. My team needed me to respond," he added. "The first half was [crap]. Throw it away and come out and play basketball in the second half."

Udoka summed up Brown's turnaround nicely after the win.

"He didn't turn it over," the Boston coach deadpanned. 

It certainly helped Brown's cause that Jayson Tatum also turned it on after a slow start. Tatum started to hit shots in the second half as well, and his passing was lethal all game, finishing with nine assists. Two of those dimes were to Brown during his three-point barrage to start the fourth.

"I knew he had it going. With me bringing it up and trying to find him, find the hot hand, he scored and made the right play," Tatum said of his teammate. "That's something we have gotten better at over the course of these years."

Brown came on strong when he was needed the most, and it has the Celtics one win away from the NBA Finals.

"This is a great opportunity," Brown said of Friday night's Game 6 in Boston. "Leave everything on the floor. We can do something special with this group and let's not take that for granted."