The Boston Celtics are in a tough spot entering Game 3 of their second-round series with the New York Knicks. They are now down 2-0 after blowing two big leads and are building a castle with all the bricks they are laying from beyond the arc.
However, as he has done in the past, Jaylen Brown made a cryptic post on his Instagram showing his mindset going forward.
It is unclear what exactly this means, but it is clear Brown is trying to lock in mentally for the rest of this series. Whenever the team has faced adversity in the past, he has made these kinds of posts.
His most famous one was when he posted about the energy shifting with the team back in 2023, and then the team went on an insane run to climb the Eastern Conference standings. It will be interesting to see if the energy will also shift for the Celtics on the road in Game 3 in New York.
In general, the team needs some sort of mindset shift to improve their play. Whatever they are doing now isn't working, as they blew two consecutive huge leads for a reason. Whatever that reason is, they need to figure that out, and a mindset shift may help them to figure that out.
While Jayson Tatum has been the lead story among players struggling for the Celtics, Brown has also struggled tremendously. In the first two games, he has 43 points on 15-of-43 shooting and 3-of-17 shooting from three.
The Celtics are always discussed as having a deep team with multiple guys who can score and lead the team, but the reality is that the team needs both Tatum and Brown to play well to win. Right now, neither is playing well.
What is interesting is that on paper, the Celtics haven't been as bad as people are making them out to be. They only lost by a combined four points in the two games, including an overtime loss in Game 1. Despite how grim things seem right now, the team isn't actually in that bad of a spot entering Game 3.
No matter what the team's approach is to Game 3, they need Brown to step up, both as a player and a leader, if they don't want to blow another big lead. For the sake of Celtics fans, hopefully, this cryptic post indicates he understands that and is ready for the challenge moving forward.
