Brown pumps up clutch defense
At 21 years old and only in his second NBA season, Jaylen Brown is still in the rudimentary stages of everything. But he’s especially green in a role that the Celtics hope eventually will become a major part of his game — as a strong on-ball defender of great scorers.
The swingman, like most others in this league when guarding Toronto star DeMar DeRozan, fell for the wrong pump fake yesterday and paid for it in the foul column. But Brown also got it right on the last play of yesterday’s 95-94 win against the Raptors.
When DeRozan hit Brown with that first up-fake 17 feet from the basket, Brown stayed home. And when the Raptor finally went up with his shot, Brown jumped last and altered the game-ending miss.
But as Brown is the first to admit, guarding a professional scorer like DeRozan always will be a sweet-and-sour process.
“Easier said than done. He’ll pump fake and pump fake and pump fake until he gets you off your feet,” said Brown. “I’m thinking like, ‘He’s gotta be shooting one of these (bleeps).’ But he’ll keep pump faking and pump faking and pump faking, and you have to do a good job of staying down. To be honest, that’s a shot DeMar DeRozan probably hits nine times out of 10. I got a late contest, but he missed this one, so we’ll take the win.”
DeRozan, also stoned by Al Horford while attempting a jumper on the previous possession, later said of that last shot: “Great look. I make that in my sleep. Felt good.”
Brown agreed. “Yeah, like I don’t believe he’s missing that shot if he gets another opportunity. But I did a good job of staying down and just trying to make him not know what I’m doing, make him guess. He just happened to miss.”
Slightly broken
As expected, Kyrie Irving missed the game with what has been described by the team as a minor facial fracture beneath his right eye.
On the plus side, Irving has been declared concussion-free by the Celts medical staff.
Irving has been fitted for a face mask, though according to coach Brad Stevens it’s unknown if the guard will travel with the team today to New York for tomorrow night’s game against the Brooklyn Nets.
“The good news is, thus far, that’s the only point of pain in his face or head or neck or anything else,” said Stevens. “He hasn’t been diagnosed with a concussion. We’ll see how the doctor visit goes and how everything else goes. We’ll keep monitoring for symptoms of that. We’re hopeful to have him back sooner rather than later.”
Irving exited Friday’s win against the Charlotte Hornets just 1:50 in, after catching an elbow by teammate Aron Baynes. Though the point guard did not require stitches, tests revealed a small fracture.
It won’t be the first time that Irving has played with a mask. He wore one after fracturing his jaw during a fall in a December 2012 game in his second season with the Cleveland Cavaliers.
Film work pays off
The Celtics haven’t practiced since mid-October, in part because of the rash of early injuries that have hit the lineup. But as evidenced by this 12-game win streak, they have made the most of their time.
“The one thing that kind of gets overshadowed is that film is huge, and individual and small group work is huge,” said Stevens. “These walkthroughs are like practice for us. We get here 3:15 before a game, we watch film, we do a warmup, we get on the court and we’re out there for 45 minutes. That’s when we think it’s best to use practice time right now. We try to individualize those off days because some guys need more rest than others.”