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Celtics Wrap: Jaylen Brown Plays Leader In Strong Win Over Spurs
No Tatum, no problem

NESN by Gio Rivera

BOSTON — The Boston Celtics continued their homestand two for two, defeating the San Antonio Spurs, 137-93, at TD Garden on Sunday night.

The Celtics improved to 52-23 while the Spurs dropped to 19-56 on their season.

ONE BIG TAKEAWAY
With Jayson Tatum ruled out just ahead of tipoff due to a left hip contusion, the call for leadership was in place for fellow All-Star Jaylen Brown, which he answered.

By halftime, Brown’s scoring total had reached 26 points. He led the Celtics in scoring and rebounding, filling the much-needed void of Tatum’s absence against one of the league’s worst defenses. The Spurs, like many other Celtics opponents this month, had no answer once Brown found his rhythm.


Brown positioned the Celtics so well that head coach Joe Mazzulla was able to grant the 26-year-old a much-deserved rest, pulling him with 6:34 minutes remaining in the fourth quarter and unloading the bench.

STARS OF THE GAME
— Brown led all scorers with 41 points, grabbing 13 rebounds while shooting 18-of-29 from the field. The step-up performance served as Brown’s 12th double-double of the season.

— Malcolm Brogdon filled his usual role, leading the reserve unit with 20 points off the bench alongside nine assists.

— Zach Collins was the lone bright light on San Antonio’s side, scoring 21 points on 8-of-18 shooting from the field with seven rebounds and four assists.

WAGER WATCH
FanDuel Sportsbook set the over/under on Derrick White’s rebound total at 4.5 with -115 odds on the Over before tipoff. White cleared those odds ahead of time with five rebounds recorded by the halftime buzzer. A $100 wager on the 28-year-old would’ve resulted in a $186.96 total payout.

UP NEXT
The Celtics, with three consecutive victories added to the win column, will next hit the road and prepare to take on the Washington Wizards. Tipoff on Tuesday from Capital One Arena is scheduled for 7 p.m. ET.

112288

So the team now has more wins than last season.

Considering the many injury challenges throughout this season, that’s a decent accomplishment.

Brogdon had 9 assists and 0 turnovers. That is a ratio that helps win championships!

A dominating win from just focusing and executing. JB again played at another level. White and Brogdon had great games.

Calling out Marcus Smart again. Two technicals, one great block and some randomness on the offensive end. Hoping that he is just protecting his body and trying to get ready for the playoffs.

Scal said one thing during the broadcast that I totally agreed with. He said Jaylen Brown has made a lot of improvements this year from last year and even improvement since the all star game to now. He is better in transition then ever before, he is stronger than ever; his finishing with spins and bullying thru traffic is reminding me of Lebron. The way he gets to his spots and jumps over people burying that jumper in their face reminds me of Jordan. He was a ridiculous 16-19 from 2 and 2-10 from 3 on his way to 41 points and 13 rebounds. He is easily all NBA worthy IMHO. If he wasn’t playing with Tatum and was the primary scoring option on a less talented team like SGA, he could easily avg over 30 ppg.

Derrick White is also balling bigtime and playing the best ball of his career. RWill keeps making progress and Brogdon is such a pro’s pro. Smart made some signature defensive plays and we won with our biggest margin of the whole year without arguably our best player Tatum. Glad Tatum got to get some well deserved rest, we are looking good at the right time. Everything seems to be coming together.

Well that was an awesome display of an almost fully operational Death Star! Yeah, we were supposed to win but it still looked good!!

Well, SIASJ says it best where we just have to win out from here. Anything or any bump in the road from here until the middle of next week and it's 2nd place or 3rd. We lose tonight, 1st place is out and Thursday and any game after is a non-starter. One game at a time. Zero room for brain farts, misreads, if getting 1st place in the East is the goal. We'll need some help. We can make our own help by winning. Winning games like this and winning against teams whom we're going to see in the 2nd and 3rd rounds of the playoffs. It really is that simple and that complex.

dboss says it even better. We're going to find out whether we're contenders or pretenders in these next 7 games. The games will play out.

Again, PHI and MIL should be very concerned.

db

Jaylen Brown went 18-29, 62%, from the field.  That's flipping awesome.  What makes it even more so is that he did that despite going only 2-10 from 3.  How is that "even more awesome"?  It means he went 16-19 from 2.  Two of those misses were on a layup.  He missed his first 2 (I think he was 9-9 from 2 before that) and then tried to tap it back up and in between 3 Spur defenders and missed that too, so that missed tip might have been called a missed fga.  I said last night on the Game On! thread that I could watch Jaylen Brown drive to the rim all day and all night.  He is SO much stronger this year.  He can blow past anybody that's bigger and stronger and can overpower anybody who isn't.  He only had 5 ftas all game.  19 2-point fgas, most of them at or near the rim, not too many mid-range shots, and only 5  whistles?!  We won, Jaylen had a great game, so this isn't sour grapes; NBA refereeing sucks.  13 rebounds, Jaylen did it all, including turning the ball over 5 times.    Ramadan runs from March 22nd, so it's been on for 5 days now, and continues until April 20th.  That means, to a devout Moslem, no food or water from sunrise to sunset.  So far so good, obviously, but I wonder how he'll hold up in the 3rd and 4th weeks.  Our last regular season game is April 9th, so there will still be 11 days left in Ramadan.  We miss the Play-In Tournament, so there's at least a couple of days of rest for us as a team and for him not to overtax himself playing on this unusual short-term lifestyle.  

When Jaylen sat down for the last time the crowd gave him an extended standing ovation, which he acknowledged with a wave.  Considering all the shite that's being said about him just because he said he doesn't know what the future will bring it made my heart glow a bit to see the Celtic fans in attendance show him that love and for him to show his appreciation of their gesture.

I just rewatched these Jaylen Brown highlights, even though I watched them live during the game.  Only 5 whistles?  And one of those was a ridiculously obvious +1 on a fast break after a steal.  If the ref missed that one he (it was a he) would find himself blowing whistles in Fort Wayne.  In the post-game presser, which I am providing a link to, Jaylen said he took some hits to the face, one of which made his nose bleed.  What a freaking disgrace those refs are.  Jaylen's wearing a mask, gets hit hard enough to make his nose bleed despite the mask, and the refs are on holiday.  His domination inside was remarkable.  6'5" Devin Vassell, 6'11" Zach Collins, it didn't matter who Pop put on him.  Jaylen took them to the iron.  I've said many times that Marcus Smart is the best post-up player on the team, certainly the best pound-for-pound, inch-for-inch in the league, but last night Jaylen borrowed that crown.  If you want to see some old-school domination in the paint, watch this highlight film.  It's 4:56 of your life you won't want back because it was worth it.  I know, I'm gushing, but if you forget his 2-10 3pt shooting this was a (dare I say?) Michael Jordan-esque performance by Jaylen.  A clinic on how a guard can score at the rim.






I don't know if this is true, there are some great shooting guards in the league, but if Malcolm's right then Jaylen Brown qualifies for the Super Max contract and that will quickly resolve the question about his future.  Wyc will take a big gulp and pay, or he's gone, but there'll be no questions needing answers.

Jaylen Brown @FCHWPO
3 hours ago
Pessimism brings weakness optimism brings power

Preach, Jaylen, preach.


DWhite with a team high +41.  When he's playing like this on both ends we are extremely tough.

As pointed out by BobC, Malcolm with 9 assists and zero turnovers.  He also had 20 points on 6-12 in just 26 minutes.  When was the last time we had a 6th Man like this, other than when Smart was coming off the bench?  

Imagine the luxury of being able to bring The Time Lord off the bench for 8 rebounds and 11 points in 19 minutes.  I feel rich today.

Smart was ejected for "using derogatory language directed at an official". Yeah, well, that's because they suck. Nevertheless, between his Trae Young ejection and other incidents Smart needs to be more smart and control his frustrations.

61 rebounds vs 38.  I guess that's what happens when one team can't miss and the other one shoots 37%.

29 fast break points for us vs 8 for them.  If only we can keep anything anywhere close to that up.  If only...

We shot 16-21, 76%, and 8-12 from 3, in the 4th quarter.  Holy Crap.  A 69-35 second half.

Despite our struggles over the previous few weeks we still have the #1 MoV in the league @ +6.4, which was obviously helped by last night's 44 point beat down.  #2 is Cleveland at +5.7.  No team in the WC is even a +5.  This becomes a more valuable stat as the season goes on and teams get to play almost everybody and, if the last few games are any indication, we're in good shape.

Sean Grande @SeanGrandePBP
yesterday
Sine the OT loss in Cleveland three weeks ago, the Celtics have the NBA's best offense...and defense. BOSTON CELTICS - NBA RANK (Since March 7) Record: 2nd Offense: 1st Defense: 1st Net Rating: 1st Scoring Margin: 1st Defensive Rebounding: 1st Assist/TO: 2nd Effective FG%: 2nd pic.twitter.com/BgJUZHlND0


https://www.espn.com/nba/boxscore/_/gameId/401469271


Bob


.

During this 3 game winning steak the one thing that stands out is our defense.  

On average, the Celtics have held teams to only 99 points in their 3 wins.  The Celtics have also climbed up to #1 in defensive rating.

Great defense triggers offense.  

Our defense is clearly uplifted with RW.  Stay healthy young man...

MB stated that securing the top seed is important.  I do not believe that the Celtics will be satisfied with playing 2nd fiddle.  They want to be #1 and why not?

If the Bucks thought that they could hold on to the top spot, they are badly mistaken.

The Bucks play at Detroit tonight.  They have beaten them 3 straight .   Jrue Holiday is out for the Bucks and Alex Burks and Bogdanovic will be out for the Pistons.  They play on the road at Indiana before the marque matchups with The Celtics on Thursday.

Jaylen Brown had another signature game and the crowd showed him plenty of genuine love when he checked out of the game for the last time.

Jaylen is now averaging 27 PPG to go along with 7 rebounds and 3.4 assists.

He is currently #9 in scoring.  

The CBA is negotiating a change in the NBA that would allow teams to offer extensions in the 140-150% range over a players current salary.

That's good but it is still below a max deal and Jaylen deserves a max deal.  He signed a team friendly deal the last time so this time he needs to maximize his salary.

The All NBA designation would be one way for the Celtics to put a max deal on the table  this summer however there is no sure fire way to guarantee that he will make the team if voted on as a guard.  As most of you know, each of the 3 all NBA teams has room for 2 guards, 2 forwards and 1 center)

Jaylen plays 2 positions (SG and SF)  In my opinion he should qualify as a guard or a forward.  If he can maintain his lofty scoring average I do not see how he can be overlooked.  

The notion that reasonable people will make the right choice is...unreasonable.  What we have is a biased collection of voters.

To think that 119 members of the Sportswriters and broadcast media can impact how much money a player can make.

To think that 119 members of the Sportswriters and broadcast media can impact how much money a player can make.


Thank you. Ive felt that way forever . They're not qualified. Who came up with that and why?

NYCelt wrote:So the team now has more wins than last season.

Considering the many injury challenges throughout this season, that’s a decent accomplishment.

Did anyone predict a win total less than last year? NO. Winning more games is great but hardly unexpected.

Injuries are part of the game and every team goes through touch patches.

Personally I do not care how many games they win as long as the last game that they win adds banner #18 to the resume. It is time to win another title and anything less is failure.