Celtics-Magic takeaways: Jaylen Brown carries C's in OT win originally appeared on NBC Sports Boston
The Boston Celtics narrowly avoided another inexcusable loss as they outlasted the Orlando Magic in overtime, 116-111.
Down 12 to start the fourth quarter, the C's stormed back to force OT with help from a career-high 50-point performance from Jaylen Brown.
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Dennis Schroder added 21 points in his return to Boston's lineup, and Marcus Smart notched 17 of his own.
Terrence Ross led Orlando with 33 points off the bench. Gary Harris chipped in 23 points of his own and four steals.
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Here are three instant takeaways from the Celtics' win, which brings them to 18-19 on the season. Next up is another home game vs. the San Antonio Spurs on Wednesday night.
Jaylen Brown carries the load
The Celtics needed all 50 of Brown's points to take down a Magic team that owns the NBA's worst record (7-30). The All-Star wing became the fourth player in franchise history to tally 50 points and at least 10 rebounds in a game, following in the footsteps of Larry Bird (twice), Kevin McHale, and Jayson Tatum.
Brown stepped up in the clutch with 21 points in the fourth quarter to help his team force overtime. Schroder and Smart made some big shots down the stretch as well, but make no mistake, this was the Jaylen Brown show. The 25-year-old made 19 shots on the night while the rest of the team combined for 20.
Needless to say, the Celtics will hope to have the Brown/Tatum duo back when they host the Spurs on Wednesday night. Tatum hasn't played since Christmas due to health and safety protocols.
Turnovers, turnovers, turnovers
If the Celtics didn't pull off their miraculous comeback, the story of this sloppy game undoubtedly would have been their carelessness with the basketball.
Boston turned the ball over a whopping 21 times -- 20 times in the first three quarters alone. As stellar as Brown's performance was, especially in crunch time, he contributed seven of those turnovers. That's been an issue for him lately as he tallied six turnovers in the win over Phoenix and another six in the loss to Minnesota.
A win is a win, but this certainly wasn't a pretty one. Despite riding a two-game win streak into Wednesday, it's clear the Celtics still have plenty to clean up.
Terrence Ross > Celtics bench
What propelled the Celtics to victory over the Suns nearly doomed them in Sunday's nail-biter vs. Orlando. Boston's bench followed up its 46-point outing vs. Phoenix with 14 points on 6-for-19 shooting against the Magic. If it weren't for Brown's 50-point explosion, we very well could be talking about another "worst loss of the season" nomination for Boston.
Meanwhile, Terrence Ross topped the entire C's bench to lead Orlando with 33 points in 35 minutes. Ross was 11-of-18 from the field while taking advantage of matchups with Grant Williams and Al Horford.
The Celtics should be getting some reinforcements within the next couple of games, so Ross' performance and the C's bench struggles shouldn't set off any alarms. But on Sunday night, those two issues nearly resulted in another crushing defeat.
