Brown shows he’s up to the challenge
Naming Jaylen Brown Eastern Conference Player of the Week for the fourth time in his career is the league’s way of tipping its cap to the sometimes undervalued forward for his seasonlong ascension.
The pressure was on Brown when he signed a five-year, $304 million extension with the Celtics in July. It was the richest contract in the history of the NBA and while that may not be the case for much longer, it catapulted Brown to a new NBA neighborhood and added scrutiny and criticism.
Brown has responded with grace and a quiet motivation that has allowed him to produce a career season. Like teammate Jayson Tatum, Brown’s scoring is down from last year because he’s taking fewer shots and averaging nearly three fewer minutes per game.
But in five games since the All-Star break, Brown is averaging 27.2 points, 5.8 rebounds, shooting 59.6 percent from the field, and 45.2 percent from the 3-point line. Those are MVPcaliber numbers.
Yet on Sunday, he was the target of Golden State’s wacky defensive strategy in the opening period that allowed him to shoot uncontested 3-pointers. Brown scored 19 points in the first seven minutes and then the Celtics responded with a 23-1 run and suddenly the Warriors were cooked.
Warriors coach Steve Kerr decided to muck up the game by allowing the league’s highestpaid player to shoot open shots, and Brown’s stunned teammates just fed him the ball.
“I kept saying thank you, and kept empowering Jaylen and credit his teammates for empowering him to just continue to play,” Celtics coach Joe Mazzulla said. “Really it just comes down to having gratitude for [opposing teams] trying to expose us to do something different. If we don’t take the lesson in that, we won’t be able to apply it to later in the game.”
Brown said he viewed the strategy as disrespectful and it shows that mind games are still prevalent in the NBA, especially when teams are trying to get the Celtics out of their rhythm. Last week, 76ers coach Nick Nurse called for his players to chase the Celtics off the 3-point
line and the result was Boston’s fewest 3-point attempts in three years.
Mazzulla and Brown are all about being challenged. For Mazzulla, he wants his team to be as ready as possible for the postseason and Kerr’s ploy to force Brown into taking continuous shots and therefore denying Tatum, Derrick White, and Jrue Holiday the opportunity to score was daring, if not foolish.
For Brown, he wants to quiet naysayers who complain about his salary or don’t feel he’s an All-NBA player. During the past five games, Brown has seven turnovers in 156 minutes, an average of 1.4 per game. Brown is not only scoring at a personalbest clip, he’s taking care of the ball.
With Tatum and Brown playing their best basketball of the season — Tatum was named Eastern Conference Player of the Month for February — the Celtics are equipped for a key fivegame road trip that begins Tuesday in Cleveland and takes the Celtics to Denver for a showdown against a team that won at the Garden (Jan. 19) and then Phoenix, Portland, and Utah.
The Celtics will be on national TV all week, a showcase opportunity for Tatum in his MVP surge and Brown to continue to display his improvement. Boston has won 11 consecutive games and are coasting toward the No. 1 seed in the Eastern Conference. But there remains work to be done, including for Brown, as the Celtics want to continue to overcome challenges from opposing coaches.
“On this team, it’s about making the right plays, letting guys feel involved and I feel like I’ve been doing that all season long and I’m going to keep doing that,” Brown said. “[Tuesday] is going to present other challenges. And the day after and next week and we should just continue to focus on that and that’s what we do, just focus on what’s next and we’ve done a good job of that all season. I think when that adversity comes, we’ve just got to be ready to embrace it.”
The Celtics’ response to adversity this season has been the best in a generation. They have lost multiple games in a row once — in November at Minnesota and Philadelphia.
The opening challenge on this road trip may have gotten easier with Cavaliers All-Star Donovan Mitchell out with a left knee issue. Devin Booker (sprained ankle) is questionable to return by Saturday’s showdown with the Suns. But the Celtics are more concerned with themselves, continuing their momentum and playing their best basketball of the season beginning in April. And that’s especially the case for Brown, who has played with a quiet passion all season because the pressure was on.
“Having the right mentality and being humble in our approach,” Brown said of the team’s focus. “We could be on the other side of that. We’ve had some heartbreaking losses and things not go in our direction that cultivates that humility that we play with. We’ve got to take advantage of the moment.”