Jaylen Brown is a solid 3-point shooter, 35.2% this season, which is almost exactly where he was at for the 10 games leading up to Sunday’s showdown against the Warriors. He’s not elite from beyond the arc, but he can knock it down.
Golden State’s defensive strategy against Boston: Have Draymond Green, who was guarding Brown, sag off him at the arc and dare Brown to shoot. Here’s what Warriors coach Steve Kerr said postgame, via Michael Wagaman of NBC Sports Bay Area.
“We wanted Draymond [Green] to be able to help on drives and make sure that we weren’t giving up easy stuff in the paint,” Kerr told reporters.
That strategy failed. Miserably.
Brown went 5-of-9 from 3 in the first quarter on his way to 19 points in the frame, setting the tone for a 52-point Celtics win. It was a game tied 21-21 midway through the first quarter before Boston went on a 61-17 run to close the half and Brown fueled that.
Boston’s Jrue Holiday said he thought Golden State was trying to play mind games with Brown, but they picked the wrong guy (also the guy who is the Celtics’ leading first-quarter scorer for the season, he often comes out hot). Via Jay King at The Athletic.
“I found it more like a mind game,” Jrue Holiday told The Athletic. “I think some people try to do that. But JB is built different. His mental is at a different level. So he’s probably not the best person to do that to.”
It wasn’t simply sagging off Brown that led to the blowout, the Warriors were thrashed in basically every aspect of the game. Kerr again:
“The killer was the transition, from the beginning all the way until the end. They got 42 transition points. You’re not winning a game with that kind of lack of defensive awareness.”
This was Boston’s 11th straight win and a statement about how dominant they have been this season.
For Golden State, it’s a harsh reminder of where they are in the NBA’s pecking order right now (a nine-seed play-in team).
