By JUSTIN STEVENS

Boston Celtics small forward Jaylen Brown helped his team win its 14th straight game last night, just hours after finding out his best friend had died.

Brown scored a team high 22 points Thursday night during a 92-88 win over the Golden State Warriors in TD Garden in Boston.

Coaches and players weren’t sure if he’d play Thursday. He had gone to Celtics coach Brad Stevens that he didn’t think he could play so soon after the death of childhood friend Trevin Steede.

Brown said a phone call from his friend’s mother eventually swayed him to play in his friend’s honor.

The call came just in time as the Celtics played in their biggest game of the season against the reigning NBA champions. The Celtics rallied twice from double-digit deficits in the game and proved the many doubters wrong. Both rallies were inspired by Brown and teammate Kyrie Irving.

But after the game, the news media stormed the Celtics’ locker room and wanted to interview the leading scorer from the game. Little did they know his best friend died, but the news media onslaught of microphones, videos and recorders flooded Brown. In a sense the news media should have backed off at least a bit.