Every week, I gather some thoughts about the Celtics, the NBA, and beyond and dump them here. Because I'm still waiting for a few more inches of ice covering my outdoor holiday lights to thaw.
- Jaylen Brown blamed the officials for a lot of what happened in the Denver game, but he bears plenty of responsibility himself. Here are a couple of bad defensive plays from late in the game.
This is the beginning of the Nuggets' run. Brown is going to say he didn’t want to give up the 3, but the Celtics first priority is always defending the rim. Zeke Nnaji simply seals Brown off, and Jaylen makes no effort to get in front. So when Neemias Queta goes to double Jamal Murray, Nnaji is in perfect position and he gets three the old-fashioned way.
Brown should have spun his way in front.
And at that point, even if Murray made the skip pass, the Celtics could have easily rotated out to the shooters.
Neemias Queta would have gone back to Nnaji in the process, and that basket would have been saved.
Then later, as the Nuggets were making their run, Brown found himself back on this fast break.
Brown never turned to see where Murray might be looking. At this point, Murray should be seeing the “Boston” on Brown’s chest, not the number on his back.
By doing that, he made the decision easy for Murray. Watson was unchecked on the right side with Brown’s back to him. What’s worse is that Watson was on Brown as the break started, so Brown should have accounted for him. Instead, he just ran back to pick up Derrick White’s man without thinking of the guy on the other side. Anfernee Simons couldn't get back in time, and it was an easy layup. If Brown were open and facing Murray, he would have been able to see the pass as it happened and either steal or deflect it, or at the very least get into position to challenge the shot or take a charge.
Those are two examples, but there are more. Brown wasn’t alone, but he was a part of the problem. He clearly wasn’t focused enough to make the right plays in those situations, and he certainly wasn’t focused enough when he turned the ball three times after this play.
If you’re going to take the answers to multiple postgame questions to send messages to refs about getting calls, you’d better be unassailable in other aspects of the game. Brown is having an MVP-level season and he’ll have plenty of opportunities to erase this game from our memories, but he opens himself up to the nitpicking when he lets the officiating get into his head so much that it’s his only postgame talking point.
- I think we’re going to start seeing taller defenders on Brown. He loves pulling up for jump shots, and the length could bother him a little more.
- Josh Minott is out with an ankle sprain, which is bad luck because I think there were opportunities to go small and switchable more often against Denver. Joe Mazzulla simply said Minott has an ankle sprain and the team hasn’t released any information, and he wasn’t around Wednesday night that I saw.
- Brian Scalabrine is really serious about the Boston-LA Clippers trade talk surrounding Ivica Zubac being real.