When deciding how to defend the Boston Celtics, sometimes you have to pick your poison. Sunday at TD Garden Golden State tried something we haven’t seen before. They left Jaylen Brown open. Like wide open.
The Warriors’ defensive game plan involved having their best defender Draymond Green sag off Brown, leaving the All-Star forward completely open on the perimeter, a strategy they drew up 15 minutes prior to Sunday’s afternoon matinee at TD Garden.
Brown responded by erupting for 19 points in the quarter, including three straight three-pointers with the game tied at 21, within 40 seconds to push Boston’s lead to 9. The barrage kicked off 32-3 first-half run. Boston opened a 44-point lead at the half, forcing Steve Kerr to wave the white flag and bench his starters for the remainder of the game. A 140-88 Boston win.
“We were really grateful for that,” Joe Mazzulla said postgame. “I just kept saying ‘thank you,’ and kept empowering Jaylen, and credit to his teammates for empowering him to just continue to play.”
Brown, who is averaging 27 points per game in his last five games, along with 45 percent three-point shooting in that span said he found Golden State’s defensive approach to be “disrespectful.”
“I don’t take a lot of 3s for the most part throughout the season because we got enough of that,” Brown said. “I get to the paint and I usually open it up for everyone else. But if you want to dare me to shoot, we can do that, too. I thought it was a little disrespectful. But we took advantage of it and we hit them back.”
As for the Warriors, there was some method to their madness. Brown is technically the worst 3-point shooter among Boston’s top 8 rotation players at 34.8% coming in. Brown is also shooting a career worst 27.9% on wide open 3-pointers. So if you’re going to let someone take wide open 3s I guess Brown is the guy.
“It didn’t work. Oh well, we’ll move on.” Draymond Green said. “I thought it was fun to try. I was actually all for it”
Steph Curry, who had only 4 points on 2-for-13 shooting and rested the entire second half, also gave his perspective on the Warriors defensive strategy.
“It was kind of a joint decision, coaching staff, obviously the leaders on the team to try out something different,” Curry said. “They’ve been playing at a high level. The team that has that many threats, you try to find some weak spot to see if it’ll throw them off a little bit. Obviously, it didn’t work.”
The win was Boston’s 11th straight, most in the NBA this season, and upped their record to 48-12. The Warriors – like the Mavericks before them – has been playing well of late having won 8 of their last 10 games including 3 straight n a 4 game East Coast road trip.
While the win mattered little for Boston in the standings, mentally there was some importance to beating a Golden State team that’s had their number since their 2022 Finals matchup. Golden State handed Boston five losses over six contests after Game 3 of the Finals. In their previous matchup this season, the Warriors rallied past the C’s in an overtime win. However, tonight, Brown and company flipped the script and led by as many as 56 points.
“It feels great but at the same time it’s always within humility,” Brown said. “At any given point that can be us and we don’t take the game for granted. We didn’t come out and mess around and that’s just how we show our respect to the game. We handle business and take care of it but we don’t do it arrogantly. We do it with humility. And it’s a lot of respect for the Golden State Warriors but we feel like it’s our time now.”
