BOSTON – Memorable moments in sports don’t necessarily come with fair warning. They don’t always show up at crunch time with a game on the line. Sometimes they appear on a Sunday afternoon in November, so early in the first quarter that many fans in certain arenas would not have reached their seats in time.

In Boston, where audiences are usually punctual, the seats at TD Garden were full for Jaylen Brown’s unexpected magic show. By the time he knocked down his fifth 3-pointer with 8:26 left in the first quarter of the Celtics’ 107-105 win against the Timberwolves, fans understood they were witnessing a rare feat. Even before Brown unleashed that shot, fans could be seen in the arena standing up in anticipation of the heat check.

“I had just hit four in a row,” Brown said. “And then, yes, it went up.”

Of course it was. Brown planned to hunt there regardless of the defense against him. Rudy Gobert must have realized it too. The entire building sensed that Brown, as hot as he was, wasn’t going to pass up the opportunity to splash home another triple. He crossed half the field and turned diagonally towards the right wing, probably so that Gobert, who followed him in transition, would not be able to pass him to another defender.

Brown, caught up in the moment, reached deep into his bag for a big move. He dribbled between his legs five times in quick succession and then did it again after putting his other leg forward. All that helped keep Gobert occupied, so that when Brown took one last dribble to set up his jumper, the maneuver created enough space for him to fire a clean shot at the four-time Defensive Player of the Year.

After Brown’s winding step-back fell through the net, the fans who weren’t yet on their feet rose in unison, as if they had just witnessed a game-winning basket. This was a different kind of excitement: an unexpected wave of brilliance at a time in the game when the water would normally be calm.

“At that time, (Brown) was our only offense,” Derrick White said. “So we just kept finding him.”

JB WITH FIVE RIGHT THREES 🥵 pic.twitter.com/Nn1mL6y3hp

— Boston Celtics (@celtics) November 24, 2024

Brown’s fifth straight long ball gave the Celtics a 15-6 lead. He tried to extend the streak to six moments later, but threw a 27-foot pull-up over Donte DiVincenzo four minutes into the match. The first miss couldn’t take the shine off Brown’s initial excitement.

The rush of three-pointers started without much indication that it would turn into a memorable one. On the Celtics’ second possession, Julius Randle didn’t close hard on Brown in transition. He took advantage of the defense by swishing a three-pointer early in the shot clock. Less than a minute later, Brown caught the ball in almost the same spot after a Jayson Tatum drive forced the Timberwolves into scramble mode. Brown’s second shot barely touched the rim on its way through the hoop.

Brown then started pushing the boundaries. After a Jaden McDaniels turnover, Tatum found Brown as he crossed half court. He took one dribble and pulled up a few feet behind the arc for his third three-pointer in as many possessions.

“Especially if he pulled it off like that,” White said, “just try to find him any way you can.”

Before Sunday, Brown hadn’t had much three-point success this season. After going 3 for 13 from behind the arc in Friday night’s win against Washington, he said he felt he settled for long attempts too often in that game. Including that ugly shooting performance, he entered Sunday shooting a career-worst 28.4 percent on three-point attempts. The pile of misses could not affect his confidence.

“I feel like I haven’t shot the ball as well as I would have liked to start the season,” Brown said. “I feel like I need to get a lot of makeup.”

Brown grabbed five of those makes in the 2:22 span of the first quarter. After sinking his first three attempts, the Timberwolves should have been desperate to turn off his tap. Instead, Randle got stuck behind an Al Horford screen, giving Brown enough time to get his fourth straight down. He then set up the fifth 3-pointer by stealing the ball from Anthony Edwards on a drive. The turnover gave Brown a chance to isolate against Gobert on the other side of the field.

If Brown’s performance had a downside, it was that the early outburst seemed to disrupt Boston’s rhythm. After sinking his first five 3-pointers, he put up his next two, including one attempt that was an ultimate heat check. After his fifth goal, the Celtics missed eleven straight field goal attempts while remaining scoreless for 5:36. The first points from one of Brown’s teammates came when Jrue Holiday hit a pair of free throws with 2:50 left in the first quarter.

It wasn’t Brown’s fault that his teammates missed all their shots before that, including a few easy layups. Still, Joe Mazzulla said Brown did it to himself to help everyone else get back into their usual flow. Shortly after his first miss, he faked a foul from the left corner when he could easily have made another three-point attempt. By driving to the paint and kicking the ball to the perimeter, Brown instead created an open look for White.

“Do you have to fight to get rhythm for others?” said Mazzulla. “Yeah. What was cool at the same time was I think Jaylen recognized that. I think he left another one, I went up to him and he said, ‘Yeah, I just have to make sure that as a team we get our rhythm back.” And so it’s great to have guys like him who can do that, but who can also point out where it didn’t have a negative impact (from Brown’s flurry), but it was like, ‘Okay, we’ve got to get our offense together.’ rhythm and connectivity there”

Joe Mazzulla on Jaylen Brown’s defense in the Celtics’ win over the Timberwolves:

“It’s great to have players of that caliber take the defense to another level.” pic.twitter.com/VeVbqQAlrB

— Bobby Krivitsky (@BobbyKrivitsky) November 24, 2024

Brown said he also learned from his first two misses.

“Even though I hit five, I still have shot discipline,” Brown said. “I didn’t like six and seven, the next two. I could have been a little more patient. It still felt good, no need to rush. So if I find myself in that situation again, I will have more good information.”

Brown made just two three-pointers eight minutes into the first quarter, but the second extended Boston’s lead to 107-102 with 1:15 remaining. He prides himself on contributing in several ways other than just scoring. After the Celtics gave up most of a 19-point lead in the third quarter, he helped them get one last stop to secure the narrow victory. Brown said the Timberwolves ran the same out-of-bounds play three or four times, so he knew to switch with Tatum beforehand so they would end up with the right defensive matchups. Brown wanted to guard Edwards on the final play.

“I switched with JT beforehand because they wanted to take me off Ant Man,” Brown said. “So I switched beforehand, I switched straight to him so I was on the ball (Edwards defending). He’s good with his left hand, but I just wanted to push him a bit, make it difficult for him and waste some time. And if he did go up to score, I could challenge him at the rim. He kicked it out. I’m not sure if Naz Reid hit (his last shot), but I think it was a good defensive possession.”

Reid didn’t fire his shot in time to count. It missed anyway.

Jaylen Brown tonight became the second fastest player in the play-by-play era to make five three-pointers in a game.

1. Saddiq Bey – 3:27 (4/3/22 at IND)
2. Jaylen Brown – 3:34 (11/24/24 vs. MIN)
3. Kevin Love – 3:53 (11/23/2016 vs. POR)

— Celtics Stats (@celtics_stats) November 25, 2024

As close as the game got, Brown’s start surpassed the finish in terms of sheer impressiveness. On December 8, 2001, Kentucky wing Tayshaun Prince opened a game against UNC with five straight three-point plays. As with Brown, the latest shot in Prince’s hot streak was the most ambitious. He stopped at the logo in transition, long before such shots were fashionable, to get the Rupp Arena crowd to roar something.

Twenty-three years later, that Prince avalanche still stands as the standard for when a player gets hot early. Brown opened proceedings like Prince and then helped close things out for the Celtics as well.

(Photo: Brian Fluharty/Getty Images)