BOSTON — Jaylen Brown summed it up simply enough when he said the Celtics had to be smarter — smarter with their shot selection, smarter with their pace, smarter with the multitude of things they did wrong on offense in Game 1.
And no one took it more to heart than Brown on Tuesday night in Game 2. The wing scored 25 of his 30 points on 9-of-10 first-half shooting and staked the Celtics for the rest of the night on their way to a series-tying 109-86 win over the Milwaukee Bucks in their Eastern Conference semifinal series at TD Garden.
Though forced to play without an ailing Marcus Smart (right thigh contusion), the Celtics jumped out early, and thanks to a more balanced attack, never trailed. Jayson Tatum picked up the second-half pace in a rougher scoring half on the way to 29 points. Grant Williams found open shots all night on the way to a 21-point performance that included 6-of-10 3-point shooting.
