Jaylen Brown sets unfortunate Game 7 record

Brown turned the ball over eight times in Boston's blowout home loss in Game 7. With Jayson Tatum playing through an ankle injury suffered on the game's first possession, the scoring and ball handling load fell on Brown's shoulders. And when Brown tried to handle the ball with his left hand, disaster followed.

For the series, Brown finished with more turnovers (25) than assists (24). That's not ideal for one of the team's top offensive creators. Jayson Tatum wasn't much better, racking up 26 turnovers to go along with 38 assists.

Brown's performance is similar to what he did the last time the Celtics lost a series, in the 2022 NBA Finals. There, he had 20 turnovers in six games, to go with 22 assists. As a team, Boston had 91 turnovers in this series. In last year's Finals it was 97 turnovers, far more than the Warriors (79), despite Golden State committing the second-most turnovers in the NBA during the regular season.

This summer, by virtue of making the All-NBA second team, Brown is eligible to sign a supermax contract worth $290 million over five years.

Brown is a great defender and an impressive scorer, considering how bad his handle is. Since entering the league, only Russell Westbrook and James Harden have lost the ball out of bounds more than Brown. He led all players in the playoffs in both live ball turnovers and lost ball turnovers.

Boston will almost certainly sign Brown to the huge extension, which would prevent him from being traded through the 2024-25 season. He's still only 26, so he has time to improve. But if his ball handling hurts the Celtics in another playoff series, Boston might regret going all-in on a star who can't dribble with both hands.