Jaylen Brown believes Celtics were too ‘tense’ in loss to Warriors

Saturday night wasn’t just another game for the Boston Celtics, but perhaps they could have benefited from treating it like one.

The Celtics fell flat in their highly-anticipated 2022 NBA Finals rematch with the Golden State Warriors at Chase Center, struggling with the same issues that plagued them last June in a 123-107 defeat.

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After the game, Celtics star Jaylen Brown suggested his team might have been a bit too eager to send a statement to Golden State on Saturday night.

“We definitely played a little tense tonight,” Brown told reporters. “We’ve definitely got some stuff that we gotta continue to work on, for sure. Last year is over. Obviously we have to learn and grow, which we have.

“We played this game like we had it circled almost in a sense for a long time instead of just playing our game, just coming out and play(ing) the way we’ve been playing — moving the ball, making shots. We were a little tense, and it kind of showed.”

Boston entered the night with the NBA’s best offense, a free-flowing attack predicated on quick ball movement and excellent shot-making. But the Warriors stifled the Celtics in both departments Saturday; the C’s recorded just 17 assists and hit just 12 of 40 3-pointers (30 percent) to post their third-lowest point total of the season.

For Celtics fans, it was an eerie flashback to the Finals, where Boston averaged barely over 100 points per game in a 4-2 series loss. But Brown, who scored 31 points on 13-of-23 shooting Saturday as the team’s lone bright spot, is confident the Celtics can turn the page quickly ahead of two games in Los Angeles this week.

“It’s just one game,” Brown said. “It only counts as one, so we’ll get back to it, get back to the way we’ve been playing and have some fun with the game.”

The Celtics still own the league’s best record at 21-6 and are nearly impossible to beat when they’re on their game. They let the moment get to them Saturday night, however, learning a valuable lesson in the process.