CLEVELAND -- For Celtics Nation, it's hard to find much to feel good about after Cleveland handed Boston the worst playoff defeat in franchise history, a 130-86 Game 2 thrashing on Friday night.
But the one glimmer of positivity they'll take away from the game was the play of Jaylen Brown.
The 6-foot-7, 225-pound rookie led all Celtics with 19 points on 7-for-11 shooting, to go with four rebounds and two steals.
More than the numbers, Brown did what most of his teammates failed to do.
He came to compete.
And that, more than the drubbing itself, is what made Game 2 such a sad affair.
Not even the most die-hard Celtics fan came into this series expecting the C's to win. But, at a minimum, it was expected they would show up, fight hard and give themselves a chance to be competitive.
Two games into this series and we're still waiting for the Celtics to show legitimate fight and competitive spirit. Up to now, it's been nowhere to be found.
"We have to have the mindset to come out and be aggressive, no matter what the matchup is," Brown said. "The mindset [in Game 2] was to come out and be aggressive, but the execution didn't match it."
He added: "We have to keep fighting. We have to hit shots."
And while a decent chunk of Brown's points came after the game was well in hand for the Cavs, even then he showed a willingness to go at whoever was guarding him offensively and stick with that aggression as a defender.
Of his 11 shot attempts, six were contested. And of those six, he wound up making five.
Defensively he didn't hesitate to foul a Cavs player if he was out of position, which led to him picking up five personal fouls for the night.
"We can't put our head down when we miss one," he said. "We have to do a better job of cheering each other on, getting each other open shots and supporting each other when we do hit them."
Brown is right about Boston needing to do a better job of knocking down shots, particularly those that are uncontested. In Game 2, Boston hit on just 28.9 percent (11-for-38) of uncontested shots. The Cavs, by contrast, made 53.2 percent (25-for-47).
But that's part of the problem in this series.
The Celtics don't want to admit it, but for much of this season they've allowed their offense to dictate how they defended. When shots go down, their defense locks in. When shots aren't falling, their defense becomes a sieve as opponents have little trouble just pouring on the points.
"I felt like two games in a row now, I've felt like when we've missed multiple opportunities in a row offensively, we've really let that dictate how we played on the other end of the court," said coach Brad Stevens. "That's disappointing. But they've taken advantage of us both nights."
And now that the Cavs are back at home, it's difficult to imagine that Cleveland will ease up to the point where the Celtics can emerge with a win.
But there's a chance that the Celtics will make one last-ditch effort to shake up their starting five in Game 3.
Isaiah Thomas has a right hip injury and it's unclear if he'll play on Sunday. He re-aggravated the injury, which he suffered in Game 6 of Boston's second-round series with Washington, on Friday and wound up with just two points -- both from the free-throw line -- after missing all six of his shots in the first half. The hip injury he suffered kept him out for the entire second half.
Stevens can go in a number of directions if Thomas can't play (most likely Marcus Smart will start). But one thing we do know, and that's Brown will get on the floor and play.
And unlike some of his teammates (at least recently), there are no questions or concerns about whether Brown will compete out there.
"I think we can still pull this off," Brown said. "We have a job to do; we have to regroup. I still believe."
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