Jaylen Brown matches Celtics history with explosive first quarter in Game 3
BOSTON -- The Boston Celtics have played in a whole lot of NBA Finals over the past 50 years. This year's Finals appearance marks the franchise's 10th appearance since 1974.
That's a whole lot of quarters. But in all of that Finals action, nobody had a better scoring quarter than the one Jaylen Brown authored on Wednesday night in Game 3.
Similar to Game 2, Brown started hot. Unlike Game 2, he stayed that way. He started the game with a 3-pointer to give Boston a 3-2 lead, and he hit another 3-pointer minutes later to extend the lead to 10-2. He hit double digits in scoring before the halfway point of the opening quarter, and his 3-ball with 1:03 left in that first quarter gave him 17 points in the first 11 minutes of the game.
When it was over, Brown tied the Celtics' record for most points in a quarter in any NBA Finals game over the past 50 years. Ray Allen had 17 points in the second quarter of Game 2 of the 2010 Finals against the Lakers.
Brown added five more points in the second quarter, entering halftime with 22 points, seven rebounds and three assists.
Brown had 24 points in the Celtics' Game 1 win and 17 points in their Game 2 loss, and he really hadn't broken out offensively since his 40-point outburst in Boston's Game 3 loss to the Heat in the conference finals. He averaged 20.3 points per game in the six games that followed, so his 22-point first half has been a long time coming.
Brown had a quieter second half, scoring just five points, to finish the game with 27. He also had nine rebounds and five assists, helping the Celtics to stabilize after another shaky third quarter to earn a 116-100 win and take a 2-1 series lead.
