Rookie Brown elevates attack
SALT LAKE CITY — Jaylen Brown doesn’t exactly need encouragement to attack the rim.
“We need a guy who can play above the rim like that,” guard Terry Rozier said after the Celtics beat Philadelphia and Ben Simmons last night, 102-94, in the first game of the Utah Jazz Summer League. “You can hear a lot of oohs and aahs.”
The oohs and aahs came often for the Celtics rookie last night. Brown only shot 2-for-7, but one was a jackknifing dunk off a James Young inbounds pass. He blocked Simmons twice, the second time so emphatically that the Sixers rookie crumbled to the floor with a right leg cramp. He didn’t return.
In fact, Brown got into such a flow of attacking the basket, he shot 11-for-17 from the line for the bulk of his 16 points. Contact doesn’t seem to slow him down. After absorbing a rough foul by Richuan Holmes during a fourthquarter dunk attempt, Brown jumped up and started talking trash to the much larger Sixers power forward.
“I don’t know if I like getting hit but I try to draw contact,” Brown said. “I guess that kind of doesn’t make sense, but yeah, I’m gonna try to get to the line as much as possible. I’ve just got to finish, hit my free throws and stay consistent that way. I’m gonna keep getting to the line. It’s everything. It’s easy points. If you shoot a high percentage from the line it just makes things a lot easier and adds to your scoring total.
“If I would have hit a few more field goals I could have scored over 20 points easily. I’ve just got to get more comfortable, continue to get to the line and continue to find my teammates.”
And dunk. There’s never too much of that.
“Right now it’s just using my athleticism, because I’m still trying to figure out what reads to make and what plays to make, so if I see an open lane I take it,” Brown said. “Sometimes I could stop and use a pull-up. It’d be a little bit easier, but right now I’m just taking off. In the future I’ve got to work on one-dribble pull-ups and things like that and finding the right spots.”
So far it certainly works for Rozier, the rookie’s summer league point guard.
“He impressed me, too. He’s a great guy. He don’t come in thinking he’s better than everybody else,” said Rozier. “I talk to him all the time. All I tell him is I’ll get a hand-off to you and you just go dunk the ball. That’s all you have to tell him. He’ll go dunk it and tear the rim down.”
Brown’s night of highlights aside, Rozier was the best Celtic on the floor with 18 points, five assists and six rebounds. Fellow 2015 draftee R.J. Hunter’s stroke was smooth enough for a 17-point night that included 3-for-6 on 3-point shooting.
No. 1 overall pick Simmons came as advertised with a fine allaround game, good for 10 points, five assists and eight rebounds.
Shouldering the pain
Jordan Mickey strained his left shoulder doing something constructive — blocking a shot in practice — and returned to Boston for treatment. Though he may rejoin the summer league team, there is no time frame.
“You can probably figure out how (he hurt the shoulder),” said Celtics assistant Micah Shrewsberry, who is coaching the summer league team in Utah. “He was blocking somebody’s shot. Sore shoulder, he won’t be with us, definitely not today. Hopefully we’ll get him back healthy. It’s nothing serious. Hopefully he’ll be back healthy soon. He’s in Boston getting treatment. We don’t have the facilities here that they have.
“It’s better for him. It’s a big summer for him, but not that big. He’s mad that he can’t be with us right now.”
Thumbs up for Horford
Having played his college basketball in Atlanta, Hunter knows a thing or two about his newest teammate, Al Horford.
“That’s huge for us. Horford, he’s not only a physical presence, he’s real smart,” said Hunter. “He’s real established. I’ve heard great reviews about how he is as a person. Boston’s huge on character, so I know that’s big for us.”
After watching the Celtics’ role unfold in free agency the last three days, Hunter has an even better understanding of the team’s national significance.
“I knew how important the Celtics were when I got here, but just a year in, it’s even bigger than I knew,” he said. “It’s a very big blessing to be here, and I try to tell these young guys that. Take advantage of this. It’s special and I know it’s a lot going on right now, but there’s very few teams that run like the Celtics do.”