Jaylen Brown returns to Los Angeles, as the Boston Celtics face the Lakers in NBA game

LOS ANGELES – Jaylen Brown will revisit his complicated relationship with the Los Angeles area, when the Boston Celtics match up with the Los Angeles Lakers in a nationally televised game on Feb 22 (Feb 23, Singapore time).

In early January, the Celtics were across town facing the Los Angeles Clippers when Brown tied his National Basketball Association (NBA) career high with 50 points in an easy victory.

He came back on Feb 15 to play in the All-Star Game but that visit was marred when the Beverly Hills Police Department put an end to his panel event for his performance brand 741.

The Beverly Hills city manager has since apologised for the police department’s overzealous approach, following conflicting statements about its actions, but the damage was done.

Seeing Brown get out his aggressions in another game in LA would be far from a surprise.

“You guys tell me how I should feel about that because it didn’t seem like anybody else had a problem in Beverly Hills but me,” Brown said, noting that his event took place at 7pm on All-Star Saturday.

He made his return to California in grand fashion on Feb 19.

Boston opened a four-game Western Conference swing with a 121-110 victory over the Golden State Warriors. Brown had 23 points, 15 rebounds, and 13 assists for his third triple-double of the season.

“I wasn’t even thinking about the game,” he said after the victory. “I was p****d. I was still p****d.”

Payton Pritchard led the Celtics with 26 points off the bench at Golden State, while Sam Hauser scored 16 points. Boston shot 51.6 per cent from the floor and held the Warriors to 44.8 per cent. Golden State were without Stephen Curry.

The Lakers are coming off a 125-122 home victory over the Clippers on Feb 20, when Luka Doncic scored 38 points over 38 minutes in his official return from a hamstring injury. Austin Reaves scored 29 points and LeBron James had 13 points with 11 assists.

It was just the 11th game the Los Angeles star trio have played together this season. Doncic missed the four games leading into the All-Star break with his injury, then played a brief five minutes in the All-Star Game.

“The offence in that first half was good, we made some shots,” Lakers head coach JJ Redick said after his team shot 84.2 per cent in the first quarter and 66.7 per cent in the first half.

“I thought that the extra passes, the execution and the way we got to spacing (in) early offence and just sharing the basketball, it was clutter-free, ego-free. We just played.”

James’ availability had been in doubt because of left knee soreness that developed in training on Feb 19.

“If I’m gonna play, I gotta make something happen,” he said. “Gotta be productive for the team and do what I can do.”

The Feb 22 matchup will be the completion of the two-game season series. The Celtics earned a 126-105 home victory over the Lakers on Dec 5. Brown led the Celtics with 30 points, while Reaves scored 36 for the Lakers.

James missed the game at Boston for rest on the second night of a back-to-back, while Doncic was out for the birth of his child.

Meanwhile, in NBA action on Feb 21, New York’s Jalen Brunson scored 18 of his 20 points in the second half and the Knicks erased an 18-point fourth-quarter deficit to beat the Houston Rockets 108-106 at Madison Square Garden.

They rebounded from a humbling loss to the Detroit Pistons with a gutsy victory that put them back into a tie for third place in the East.

“Just found a way,” Brunson said. “Kept chipping away. Got some stops, made some shots and there it is.”

Elsewhere, the NBA’s Eastern Conference-leading Pistons romped to a fifth straight win with a 126-110 victory over the slumping Bulls in Chicago.

Meanwhile, the San Antonio Spurs kept the pressure on West leaders Oklahoma City Thunder with an eighth straight triumph. They beat the reeling Sacramento Kings 139-122. REUTERS, AFP