Jaylen Brown brings a key ingredient to Boston Celtics’ win over Denver Nuggets

https://www.masslive.com/celtics/2021/02/jaylen-brown-brings-a-key-ingredient-to-boston-celtics-win-over-denver-nuggets.html



Jaylen Brown brings a key ingredient to Boston Celtics’ win over Denver Nuggets


Updated 6:30 AM; Today 6:30 AM



Boston Celtics guard Jaylen Brown, left, shoots over Denver Nuggets forward Michael Porter Jr. (1) and guard Facundo Campazzo, center, during the second half of an NBA basketball game, Tuesday, Feb. 16, 2021, in Boston. (AP Photo/Charles Krupa)AP



By Brian Robb | brobb@masslive.com



Boston Celtics swingman Jaylen Brown has made one of the biggest offensive leaps out of any player in the NBA this season, but his court vision is an area where there is still plenty of room for improvement. That fact was on display during a tumultuous past week for the Celtics that capped off a 5-10 slide over the last 15 games entering Tuesday night’s matchup with the Denver Nuggets.

Since returning from a two-game absence due to a sore knee, Brown had reverted back into some troubling old habits with the ball. Over his last four games, he had tallied just three total assists before Tuesday, including three contests (at Utah, vs. Detroit, at Washington) in which he had zero assists altogether. That’s a far drop-off from his 3.4 assists per game average this season.

As Brown struggled to find teammates with the pass, the same could be said for the Celtics’ ball movement as a whole. They posted season-low assists totals over the past two games (15 vs. Detroit, 14 vs. Washington), leading to a pair of ugly losses against the two worst teams in the Eastern Conference.

That drop-off led to a renewed point of emphasis for Brown and the team heading into Tuesday’s tilt with the Nuggets.

“That’s what we basically talked about most of shoot-around this morning,” Celtics coach Brad Stevens said of the ball movement.

Despite a very sluggish offensive start, Brown and the Celtics got back to their unselfish ways in a 112-99 victory, tallying 26 assists, the team’s sixth-highest total in a game this year.

“The ball moved right out of the gate, even though we weren’t making shots in the first couple of minutes the ball was popping around the way that it hasn’t been,” Stevens explained. “We rewarded guys for running more than we have in the last few weeks and we rewarded guys for cutting.

“That’s a huge part of team-ness and making the right play and all that other stuff. So, I was encouraged by that, but these games are coming in a flurry, this stretch is incredible so we don’t have any time to think about what just happened. We’ve got to just turn our attention and try to do it again tomorrow night.”

Just like Boston’s record, their ball movement has been up-and-down all season depending on the night. However, there are few better indicators of the team’s success right now than how well they are sharing the ball with each other. The Celtics improved to 7-1 on the season when they dish out 25 assists or more, a sign that improving their 22.0 assist per game average on the season (28th in the NBA) could be the key to sustaining consistent success.

Brown’s role in that equation is also immense as such a focal part of the offense. With teams continually collapsing on him in the lane and driving around screens, his ability to find the open man can turn tough shots for him into great shots for his teammates. He got back to that mentality in this game after playing 64 minutes in the last two games without dishing out a single assist. Against the Nuggets he posted a team-high 27 points and also five assists. Boston improved to 5-1 on the season when he reached that five-plus assist threshold.

“It’s something that we’ve just got to continue to be consistent,” Brown said. “I’m a big part of that, just learning and growing. Obviously this is a new role for me and a lot of new roles for guys on this team, and we’re still learning and figuring it out 25, 26 games in, but still learning, making adjustments. Teams are guarding us differently, just trying to learn and grow on the fly.”

With Marcus Smart out of the lineup with a calf injury for at least another couple weeks and Kemba Walker not back to his All-Star self yet, the onus will continue to fall on Brown and Jayson Tatum (eight assists vs. Nuggets) to make their teammates better as one of Boston’s best distributors (Smart) watches from the sidelines. Brown made his fair share of mistakes while trying to embrace this role (seven turnovers) but a lot of those miscues came on passes with good intentions in mind.

The commitment to the pass in Tuesday’s win did wonders for Boston’s supporting cast as well. Backup point guard Payton Pritchard (seven assists) set the tone for a tightened Celtics bench rotation that featured more athleticism and versatility at the wings with Javonte Green and Aaron Nesmith. The end result was 30 points on 11-of-17 FG, one of the most efficient performances from the reserves all year as guys made the extra pass all night to find easy looks.

“Just picking each other up man,” Rob Williams said of the second unit’s mentality. “Not falling into selfish ways. Not falling into your own mind. Just staying with each other out there always, always promoting positivity.”

One win against an undermanned Nuggets team (five rotation players were out due to injury) may not mean much in the long run, but it provided an important reminder for Brown and the Celtics about how to be the best version of themselves. Selflessness leads to success in the NBA.

“It’s great, we need wins like that,” Brown said. “Some wins against some good opponents that fire us up and things like that, because that can carry over into next game and stuff like that. So today was a good win. Let’s see if we can build off of it.”


Bob


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