Jaylen Brown will revisit his complicated relationship with the Los Angeles area when the Boston Celtics match up with the Los Angeles Lakers in a nationally-televised game Sunday.
In early January, the Celtics were across town facing the Los Angeles Clippers when Brown matched his career high with 50 points in an easy victory. He came back last week to play in the All-Star Game but that visit was marred when the Beverly Hills Police Department put an end to his panel event for his performance brand 741.
The Beverly Hills city manager has since apologized for the police department’s overzealous approach, following conflicting statements about its actions, but the damage was done.
Seeing Brown get out his aggressions in another game in L.A. would be far from a surprise.
“You guys tell me how I should feel about that because it didn’t seem like anybody else had a problem in Beverly Hills but me,” Brown said, noting that his event took place at 7 p.m. on All-Star Saturday.
He made his return to California in grand fashion Thursday.
Boston opened a four-game Western Conference swing with a 121-110 victory over the Golden State Warriors. Brown had 23 points, 15 rebounds, and 13 assists for his third triple-double of the season.
“I wasn’t even thinking about the game,” Brown said after the victory. “I was pissed. I was still pissed.”
Payton Pritchard led the Celtics with 26 points off the bench at Golden State, while Sam Hauser scored 16 points. Boston shot 51.6% from the floor and held the Warriors to 44.8%. Golden State was playing without Stephen Curry.
The Lakers are coming off a 125-122 home victory over the Clippers on Friday when Luka Doncic scored 38 points over 38 minutes in his official return from a hamstring injury. Austin Reaves scored 29 points and LeBron James had 13 points with 11 assists.
It was just the 11th game the Los Angeles star trio has played together this season. Doncic missed the four games leading into the All-Star break with his injury then played a brief five minutes in the All-Star Game.
“The offense in that first half was good, we made some shots,” Lakers head coach JJ Redick said after his team shot 84.2% in the first quarter and 66.7% in the first half. “I thought that the extra passes, the execution and the way we got to spacing (in) early offense and just sharing the basketball, it was clutter free, ego free. We just played.”
James’s availability had been in doubt because of left knee soreness that developed in practice Thursday.
“If I’m gonna play, I gotta make something happen,” James said. “Gotta be productive for the team and do what I can do.”
Sunday’s matchup will be the completion of the two-game season series. The Celtics earned a 126-105 home victory over the Lakers on Dec. 5. Brown led the Celtics with 30 points, while Reaves scored 36 for the Lakers.
James missed the game at Boston for rest on the second night of a back-to-back, while Doncic was out for the birth of his child.
