Brandon Boston Jr. Dedicates Career Game Vs. Celtics to Terrence Clarke

Boston exploded for 27 points off the bench against the Celtics on Wednesday night.

Brandon Boston Jr. and Terrence Clarke were teammates on the 2020–'21 Kentucky men's basketball team and became best friends during their one season in college. They were leaving a workout in Los Angeles in April when Clarke was tragically killed in a car accident. He was just 19 years old and weeks away from a likely selection in the '21 NBA draft.

On Wednesday night, Boston dedicated his performance against the Celtics to his best friend. Boston mentioned that Clarke wanted to play for the Celtics growing up.

Boston came off the Clippers' bench and scored a team-high 27 points in a thrilling 114–111 victory. It was the Kentucky product's best game of his NBA career thus far.

Following the game, Boston explained why he kept thinking about Clarke while he was on the court Wednesday night. 

"He always pushed me to be my best self, so I always keep that in the back of my mind," Boston said, via MassLive.com.

Brandon Boston said he dedicated tonight's career game to his best friend Terrence Clarke. "He's from Boston and wanted to play for Boston." He said if Clarke were still here, he would've called him screaming, telling him that he told him he could do this.

— Ohm Youngmisuk (@NotoriousOHM) December 9, 2021

Celtics coach Ime Udoka commented on Boston's performance during his postgame press conference. He said the team was aware of the rookie's abilities as a scorer.

"We talked about this kid,” Udoka said, via MassLive.com. “I mean, specifically him, but to play as well as we did in the first quarter if you look at it, we won three quarters with the exception of that second quarter with that 39–23 margin. Like I said, it dug us a hole and a lot of it was self-inflicted with the turnovers. Boston, we talked about how he scored 43 recently in the G League and with this team, his minutes are going up, up, up. So I felt like we were surprised by him when we specifically talked about him."

Boston is averaging 6.2 points per game in his rookie season. He'll be back in action Saturday when the Clippers take on the Magic. 

For more news on the Celtics, head over to Inside The Celtics.