BOSTON — Additional accolades for rounding out his game this season didn’t come. Not yet. Maybe they never will.
Jaylen Brown is still better than ever. He said so earlier this season. He has shown it ever since.
As proof, starting with the confidence the Celtics placed in him Thursday evening. Don’t just look at Brown’s buckets, although he scored plenty of them while leading his team with 40 points. Dig deeper than that. Consider how well he controlled Boston’s 126-110 Game 2 win over the Indiana Pacers to take a 2-0 lead in their Eastern Conference final series. Watch how smartly he attacked the Pacers’ small guards and wings. Notice how, once Brown started rolling, Boston ran possession after possession through him.
“He’s almost impossible to guard when he’s like that,” teammate Derrick White said. “It was unreal. He scored 40 points, but he just kept making the right read and the right play. He just showed composure and patience to get to his spot.
A day after learning he didn’t make any of the All-NBA teams, Brown scored 24 points in the first half. He finished the game with a plus-18 rating. He ruthlessly broke down the Pacers’ defense for himself and others, showing the extra layers of awareness he added to his game. The Celtics trailed by two points early in the second quarter, but Brown dominated by opening the period on a 17-0 run.
Afterwards, in the locker room, several of Brown’s teammates spoke about his All-NBA snub themselves. White said voters may have spent too much time focusing on the numbers while overlooking Brown’s impact on the league’s best team.
“I don’t know what they missed, but Jaylen Brown is one of the 15 best players in this game,” White said. “All season, on both sides of the ball, he did so much for us to help us win games, which is what the game is all about. It’s a shame.”
The All-NBA debate could rage on. With the Celtics six wins away from a championship, that shouldn’t be the most important goal for anyone on the team. Brown certainly didn’t seem to be focused on that.
“We’re two games away from the (NBA) Finals,” Brown said. “So honestly, I don’t have time to worry about it…”
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Still, Brown seemed frustrated that other players received more adulation. If he is disturbed, it is completely natural. He landed on the All-NBA second team last season, then dropped it even after improving significantly in the areas that matter most. He focused on defense. He developed his basketball intelligence. He vowed to do whatever it took to win games even if his scoring average dropped. But it has gone down. Maybe it cost him in All-NBA voting this time around?
“I watch guys get praised and anointed who I think are half as talented as me on either side of the ball,” Brown said. “But at this point in my life, I accept it. It comes from being who I am and what I stand for, and I wouldn’t really change that. So I just go out and I’m grateful to be able to go out on the field every night and do my best and get better every year. Whether people like it or not, that’s the way it is.
This playoff run should earn Brown more credit. Over the Celtics’ first 12 playoff games, he averaged 24.8 points and 6.5 rebounds per game while shooting 54.4% from the field. In the second round, he said he didn’t think anyone on the Cavaliers could guard him. In the first two games of the Eastern Conference Finals, he played like no one on the Pacers can either.
Brown seems as locked in as ever. Even after saving the Celtics in the opening game of the Eastern Conference Finals, he looked sullen. Brown didn’t seem as excited about his game-tying three-pointer, Boston’s most memorable playoff bucket to date, as he seemed frustrated with why he even needed to take and make such an important shot . He thought the Celtics should have played better. He thought their defense wasn’t up to its usual standard. His team still won, but it wasn’t enough for Brown. It bothered him that the Celtics had left themselves so vulnerable.
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Once again in the playoffs, Brown wants to leave no doubt this time. Given the urgency he’s expressed since the start of the playoffs, he’s tired of not measuring up. He is determined to prove that the Celtics are ready now. If so, he must know, it will be largely because he is ready now. He’s a more complete player even if the All-NBA vote doesn’t reflect it.
“The main thing about JB is he gets better every year,” White said. “He just reads the game better. I think maybe before he was speeded up and didn’t really read it, but now you can’t really speed him up.” And he always makes the right reads. This is a big moment for us. This is definitely a snub from the All-NBA.
Former Celtic Marcus Smart joked that Brown went to the basket like a chicken with its head cut off. Now, Brown is playing the game on his terms.
“He has an innate ability to improve and work hard, drive, he has unreal confidence, but he’s also not afraid to work on things he knows he needs to get better at.” , said coach Joe Mazzulla. “So you see him every day at shooting range or in practice, he’s out there with six or seven coaches working on every possession, every spacing imaginable so he can see his reads. He just cares about the right ones things.
The Celtics have committed to putting aside their individual agendas all season. Still, if there’s a right way to respond to an All-NBA snub, Mazzulla thinks Brown will find it.
“Jaylen is just one of my favorite people,” Mazzulla said. “How does he handle this? I think he cares in a way that motivates him, and I think he doesn’t really care at all because he understands that winning is the most important thing.
(Photo: Maddie Meyer/Getty Images)
News Source : www.nytimes.com
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