Reigning Eastern Conference Finals MVP Jaylen Brown put together a tone-setting performance for the Boston Celtics in their Game 1 win over the Dallas Mavericks on Thursday.
The best part was that he brought it on both sides of the ball.
“What you saw tonight is the challenge he took for himself coming into the year,” said head coach Joe Mazzulla. “Not wanting to be defined by one thing.”
Though Brown may not want to be defined by one thing, his showing in the series opener certainly could be.
Energy.
Despite being the team’s leading scorer with 22 points, Jaylen’s biggest plays came on the defensive end.
JB’s first of three steals in Game 1 tells the whole story. He used his intensity on the defensive end to frustrate Luka Doncic and also fuel his and the team’s offense. Any time defense leads to offense for the Celtics, things are operating at a high level.
There’s also an element of showmanship in this sequence that simply rules. Brown builds anticipation and takes his time before the dunk as he holds the entire Garden crowd in the palm of his hand, before blowing the roof off with the slam.
He was able to keep the energy high at a point in the game where it needed to be there. Dallas had been able to score seemingly at will in the opening minutes, but this play helped to turn the momentum. Boston outscored the visitors 27-11 for the remainder of the opening quarter.
Things went pretty well for the remainder of the half but got rocky in the third quarter. Dallas cut the Celtics’ 29-point lead down to just eight.
According to Brown, the Cs were able to regain control by starting on the defensive end.
“I think defensively, I thought we were — we made some big-time plays,” he explained. “When they cut it to eight, that’s when the game started. I liked how our team responded. We stayed composed. Offensively, we got to our spacing and was able to push that lead back out and make some plays on offense. That was a big third quarter.”
Again, Brown made his presence felt on both sides of the floor.
He sank three out of four from the line to help kickstart the stalling offense, stepped up with three loud blocks on defense, and then capped it off with a three-point dagger at the end of the quarter.
“JB’s unreal,” said Derrick White. “The perimeter, blocking shots, obviously, he had two big-time blocks. And he can just do everything on the basketball court. He has like no weaknesses on both sides.”
Brown credited his teammates for keeping the intensity high on defense and believes that he needs to be even better as the series goes on.
“I think it’s a full-team effort,” he told reporters. “Luka still had 30 and 10, so I got to do a better job. But it’s a full-team effort and tonight I got lucky a few times, but we got to get ready for Game 2.”
It’s great to see JB holding himself to a high standard but make no mistake, he did a great job wearing Doncic down.
The question is not whether or not Luka scores 30 points, but more how difficult it was for him to get there. Brown was disciplined while guarding the Slovenian star. He didn’t bite on the numerous pump fakes that Luka threw his way and forced the ball out of the All-NBA guard’s hands.
After a season of taking pride in his defensive efforts, JB took advantage of the grand stage that is the NBA Finals and displayed why he believes he deserves more praise on that end of the floor.
