BOSTON — Right at the beginning of the season, it was clear one of Jaylen Brown’s goal was to up the intensity on the defensive end of the court. Sure, the Celtics added Jrue Holiday to the mix, but they traded away the 2021-22 Defensive Player of the Year in Marcus Smart. So Brown wanted to make sure the transition defensively was smooth for the rest of the team.
Those efforts have worked — Brown is having arguably the best defensive season of his career. Many times throughout the year, Brown has guarded the opposition’s best player and tried to make life difficult as possible. That was indeed the case Wednesday in the Celtics’ win over the Bucks as Brown matched up against Damian Lillard all night. His teammates take notice of those efforts.
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“It’s like powerful, what that does for our team, how much better it makes us seeing him take the challenge of guarding the best guard on the other team,” Jayson Tatum said. “Picking him up full court, chasing him around all night. It has an impact on the rest of the team and really gives everybody else no excuses.”
Brown deserves his flowers as the guard has used his physicality against the opposition. He has also spoken about being in his athletic prime, so his conditioning is also a factor as he’s been a premier two-way player this season. All those bits and pieces come into consideration as Brown helps lift his team on the defensive end of the court.
Of course, Brown can’t stop everything as superstars are paid well in the league for a reason. But as Tatum mentioned, Brown’s willingness to guard the other team’s best player goes a long way for the team. And Brown is one of the leaders for the Celtics’ defense, though plenty of credit should also go to the rest of the C’s.
“It’s fun; it’s like a game of chess,” Brown said. “A guy has it going and they want to be aggressive, they’re going to him every possession. Like, pick him up, be aggressive, sometimes you gotta be back. It’s good. It’s good information. And credit to Dame, he still came out and had a good showing. We guarded him, covered him pretty well. Caused some turnovers, but they played well tonight.”
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