BOSTON — Jaylen Brown takes pleasure in being efficient on each ends of the ground for the Celtics and did simply that when the No. 2 seeded Milwaukee Bucks rolled into city on Wednesday evening for a marquee matchup at TD Backyard.
With Jrue Vacation dominated out earlier than tip-off, Brown assumed the duty of guarding Milwaukee’s Damian Lillard, who’s averaging 24.4 factors this season on 42.5% taking pictures. That’s no simple activity, particularly contemplating Lillard’s capability to routinely hit pictures far past the perimeter, however that didn’t cease Brown from discovering a technique to create chaos for the Bucks.
“It’s enjoyable. It’s like a sport of chess,” Brown stated after Boston’s 122-119 win over Milwaukee. “A man has it going, figuring out they wanna be aggressive, they going to him each possession. Decide him up, be aggressive, typically you gotta be again. It’s good, it at all times offers you good data.”
Brown added: “I’ve been doing all of it yr. Simply taking whoever the very best man is on no matter staff. That matchup is mine. I wanna be capable of, not simply tackle these matchups, however take them on with a technique, with intelligence that’s going to assist our staff win. Not simply to be prefer it’s all about me.”
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From the opening tip, Brown made it his mission to torture Lillard by urgent him at full court docket and serving to maintain the eight-time All-Star to simply 13 factors by halftime. Lillard was visibly affected by Brown’s aggression, which added a major difficult factor to Milwaukee’s bid to search out its means across the NBA-best Celtics with out franchise star Giannis Antetokounmpo.
That nightmare adopted Lillard all through regulation, and it paid dividends for the Celtics when the Bucks turned an 8-0 run within the closing 5 minutes of the fourth quarter right into a nail-biting end.
Lillard scored 11 factors in that body to maintain Milwaukee’s possibilities alive and spoil Boston’s possibilities of one other “Gino Time” celebration. But, courtesy of Brown getting forward in lowering the risk that’s Lillard, the Celtics have been capable of lengthen their successful streak to seven consecutive video games.
“It’s like highly effective. What that does for our staff, how significantly better it makes us,” teammate Jayson Tatum defined. “Seeing him take the problem of guarding the very best guard on the opposite staff, selecting him up full court docket, chasing him round all evening, it has an affect on the remainder of the staff. It actually offers all people else no excuses, proper? If he can do that every one evening whereas nonetheless making an attempt to be efficient on the offensive finish, it’s nothing in need of particular.”
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Brown logged a strong evening offensively as nicely, scoring 21 factors on 6-of-15 taking pictures with eight rebounds and two assists. Within the fourth quarter, Brown additionally pitched in with two essential free-throws to increase Boston’s lead from two to 4 factors with 20.1 seconds left.
Taking over that initiative, particularly with Vacation sidelined in opposition to a potential playoff rival, speaks volumes of Brown’s development which indirectly, form or kind, has made itself obvious constantly all season.