Brown, Jaylen (1996- )

Subterms

    More stories

    • 163 Shares149 Views

      in Basket

      The Celtics Have Found a New Way to Be Better Than Everyone Else

      by

      Boston was the best defensive team last season en route to the N.B.A. finals. Not so much this year. A scorching offense has helped them to the best record this year.BOSTON — The Celtics have been many things this season.Explosive from the 3-point line. Unguardable in transition. A nightmare for defenders, who have witnessed another leap in the twin-pronged development of Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown, two young players who, around this time last year, were coping with criticism about whether they could coexist. Now, they have the Celtics positioned as a presumptive favorite to return to the N.B.A. finals — and perhaps win it all.Yet for all their pyrotechnics on offense, the Celtics have had their issues on defense. Through the early weeks of the season, Boston has been more pasta strainer than steel curtain when it comes to thwarting open looks. Considering everything else that the team can do — namely, score oodles of points — the Celtics have offered up some decidedly mediocre defense.But that may be changing, which is awful news for the rest of the league.Facing the Celtics last week, the Dallas Mavericks were trying to sustain a late-game surge when their All-Star guard, Luka Doncic, found a seam to the basket — only to have his finger roll rejected at the rim by Tatum. The Celtics came away with the ball and pushed it ahead to Brown, who sank a 3-pointer to seal the Boston win.As that sequence was playing out, Tatum and Doncic were left in quiet conversation at the other end.“I told him that I didn’t want him to dunk on me,” Tatum said later. “He looked at me and was like, ‘You thought I was going to dunk it?’ I was like: ‘You never know.’”The Celtics, who have won 13 of their last 14 games to improve their record to a league-best 17-4, still have a middle-of-the-pack, bend-but-don’t-break defense under Joe Mazzulla, their interim coach. Their defensive rating, which is a measure of points allowed per possession, ranked 14th in the league entering Tuesday. But over their past eight games, the Celtics have produced a top-10 defense — a sign of growth as they lean into Mazzulla’s up-tempo style while compensating for the injury absence of Robert Williams III, their starting center.Celtics guard Marcus Smart, right, who won the Defensive Player of the Year Award last season, is defending centers more often this year with center Robert Williams III out injured.Charles Rex Arbogast/Associated Press“Our offense is so good that it hides some of our defensive flaws,” Marcus Smart, the team’s starting point guard, said in an interview. “But we’re continuously out here working, and it’s only going to get better with time.”And it will presumably improve even more later this season. After Williams underwent arthroscopic surgery on his left knee in late September, the team said he would resume “basketball activities” in eight to 12 weeks. There are no certainties about his health, of course, but even if Williams were to return at less than full strength, his mere presence around the rim would help. Last season, he was named to the N.B.A.’s all-defensive second team.In his absence, Smart, who is 6 foot 3, has spent more time guarding opposing centers than he would prefer. After he averaged 1.7 steals a game last season, when he won the N.B.A.’s Defensive Player of the Year Award, Smart is averaging just 1.1 steals this season, a dip that can be attributed to his playing out of position.“Because I’m guarding the post so much, you don’t want to gamble too much,” Smart said. “It’ll be different when Rob is out there and I can gamble. But without him, I have to be solid for my team and control that back line.”The Celtics were all about grinding opponents to smithereens last season, when they led the league in defensive rating. Ime Udoka, who was in his first season as the team’s coach, made defense his priority, and it was a winning strategy. In the playoffs, Boston advanced to the N.B.A. finals before falling to Golden State in six games.Mazzulla, though, was made interim coach on the eve of training camp after the Celtics suspended Udoka for the season for unspecified “violations of team policies.” (According to two people with knowledge of the situation who were not authorized to discuss it, Udoka had a relationship with a female subordinate.)But while Mazzulla was an assistant under Udoka last season, he has not tried to replicate Udoka’s approach. Instead, Mazzulla has done things his own way — by recognizing the team’s unique offensive abilities. Entering Tuesday, the Celtics were leading the league in scoring, 3-pointers, 3-point percentage and offensive rating.It is also worth noting that, as a part of Boston’s off-season trade for Malcolm Brogdon, the Celtics gave up Daniel Theis, a defense-minded center. The trade, of course, was worth it: Brogdon, a point guard, has been terrific coming off the bench, and Theis has yet to play for the Indiana Pacers this season because of an injured knee.In any case, the Celtics have essentially been daring opponents to keep up with them. Sometimes, Smart said, that may mean that the Celtics give up an extra offensive rebound or two as they look to break out and run.“When you’re not really boxing out as much and having as many guys stay back, your defense is going to take a hit,” Smart said. “But we’re going to get it together.”For his part, Tatum has clearly taken another step as a defender by averaging a career-best 1.2 blocks a game. He recently described himself and Brown as “two of the best two-way players in the league.”Tatum left his imprint on the Mavericks last week. Late in the second quarter, Tatum raced in as a weakside defender to swat a layup by the Mavericks’ Dorian Finney-Smith. Tatum corralled the rebound, brought the ball upcourt himself and got fouled attempting a 3-pointer. He made all three free throws.“That’s what’s going to make him an even greater player — being able to do it on both ends,” Smart said. “We know what he can do on the offensive end. Everybody knows. But it’s even more detrimental to a team when you’re locking them up.”There are times, though, when it may not even matter.On Monday, the Celtics hosted the Charlotte Hornets, an injury-marred team that has taken up residence in the Eastern Conference basement. With Brown and Al Horford sitting out the second game of a back-to-back, Mazzulla went with a deeper rotation. Blake Griffin, who had been collecting dust bunnies on the bench for nearly two weeks, made his third start of the season and scored on the team’s opening possession. The Celtics sank 10 3-pointers in the first quarter and led by as many as 30 points before halftime.They were well on their way to another rout in a season full of them. More

    • 113 Shares179 Views

      in Basket

      Celtics Shake Off N.B.A. Finals Loss With Season-Opening Win

      by

      A tough loss to Golden State ended Boston’s championship hopes last season. The lessons from that series are already showing.BOSTON — The Celtics talked an awful lot in training camp about the value of experience. Last season, they got loads of it by surviving a brutal start, and by ousting intergalactic celebrities in the early rounds of the playoffs (Kevin Durant, Giannis Antetokounmpo) before advancing to the N.B.A. finals.The process made them tougher and wiser, with a reservoir of resilience that may have equipped them to handle the news, essentially on the eve of camp last month, that their coach, Ime Udoka, had been suspended for the season for violating team policies. His sudden absence could have been disruptive.Instead, the Celtics seemed to rededicate themselves to their singular goal of winning a championship. Why not them? Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown are two of the league’s brightest stars. The team’s supporting cast includes Marcus Smart, last season’s defensive player of the year. And if Joe Mazzulla, the team’s 34-year-old interim coach, is daunted by the task ahead of him, he hardly showed it Tuesday night as the Celtics opened their season with a 126-117 victory over the Philadelphia 76ers.“These guys have been through a lot together,” said Mazzulla, whose players celebrated his first career N.B.A. coaching win by dousing him with water.Brown shot 14 of 24 from the field on Tuesday, a key to Boston’s strong performance. The Celtics shot 56.1 percent for the game.Cj Gunther/EPA, via ShutterstockThe last time the Celtics played a meaningful home game was back in June, when Golden State’s Stephen Curry gave them the business — yes, the business — in Game 6 of the N.B.A. finals. Curry left Boston with another championship, and Tatum and Brown were left to contemplate how they could take the next step.“We both had bad summers after losing to the Warriors on our home floor,” Brown said. “Having to answer for it all summer long — it was tough. So going into this season, we kept all of that in mind.”On Tuesday, Brown and Tatum each scored 35 points to eviscerate the 76ers, who have title dreams of their own. Brown shot 14 of 24 from the field, while Tatum shot 13 of 20 and grabbed 12 rebounds. The Celtics used their speed to run the 76ers off the parquet floor, outscoring them by 24-2 in transition.“I think the group that was together last year knew how they wanted to approach this year,” said Malcolm Brogdon, who scored 16 points off the bench in his Celtics debut after they traded for him in July. “And I think playing with pace was one of the things they wanted to improve.”It can be easy to read too much into training camp and season openers. Most teams have high hopes. Optimism runs amok. The Celtics are no different. For weeks, the players have expressed confidence in Mazzulla, who joined the Celtics as an assistant in 2019 and whose only previous head coaching experience was at Fairmont State, a Division II program in West Virginia.For now, at least, Mazzulla has gotten the players to buy into his message — by striking that delicate balance between being demanding of them while giving them the freedom to do what they do best, Brogdon said. The Celtics appear determined to play hard and play fast. Catch them if you can.Their opener against the 76ers was an immediate litmus test.Joe Mazzulla, the Celtics’ interim coach, had been an assistant coach with the team since 2019.Maddie Meyer/Getty Images“I’m not sure what you learn,” Doc Rivers, the coach of the 76ers, said before the game. “Opening night is its own beast. Guys have worked all summer to show not only us but everyone what they’ve done, what they’ve worked on. And as a coach, you want to make sure they don’t show everything — because they may not be ready to show that.”Remember: The Celtics were 18-21 at one point last season before they found their footing under Udoka. With that in mind, plenty can happen between now and June, or even between now and December.“It’s just one game,” Brown said.For the players this season, there will be constant reminders of the franchise’s illustrious past. On the team’s home court, silhouettes of the number 6 fill both lanes — a homage to Bill Russell, the iconic Celtics center who died in July. Tuesday’s game was preceded by a ceremony to honor him that included remarks from Brown — “Our gratitude is endless,” he said — and a new work by Porsha Olayiwola, Boston’s poet laureate.The Celtics wore special jerseys embroidered with 11 diamond patches, a nod to the 11 championships that the team won with Russell. And the script on the front of the jerseys was said to be inspired by the aesthetics of Slade’s Bar & Grill, which Russell owned in the 1960s. In their pregame huddle, the Celtics reminded one another to “honor the man” with their work that evening.The Celtics made some modest changes over the summer, trading for Brogdon and signing a twilight-era Blake Griffin, both of whom received big cheers when they entered the game in the first quarter. Griffin immediately endeared himself to the crowd by grabbing two offensive rebounds on his first possession.The Celtics opened the season with several tributes to Bill Russell, the franchise icon who died in July. He wore the No. 6, which has been retired across the N.B.A. in his honor.Charles Krupa/Associated PressThe entire team was surprisingly sharp, committing just 11 turnovers while shooting 56.1 percent from the field. They were also without Robert Williams, their starting center, who underwent knee surgery last month, and they should be even more fearsome when he returns.In his absence, a conga line of teammates took turns mixing it up with Joel Embiid, Philadelphia’s All-Star center. Early in the third quarter, Embiid got tangled up with Smart, who said he stopped himself from escalating the situation. (Again, meet the older, wiser Celtics.)“It’s maturity,” Smart said. “I could’ve cracked his head open, but I didn’t.”In the waning seconds, as the crowd began a familiar chant — “Let’s go, Celtics!” — Mazzulla allowed himself to savor the moment.“When they’re cheering for you,” he said, “it means you’re doing something right.” More

    • 113 Shares99 Views

      in Basket

      Boston Celtics Players ‘Shocked’ by Coach Ime Udoka’s Suspension

      by

      Boston’s Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown said they had not spoken to Coach Ime Udoka since the team announced his full-season suspension on Thursday.CANTON, Mass. — Jayson Tatum of the Boston Celtics said he was preparing for the start of training camp last week when he learned that Ime Udoka, the team’s head coach, could have been facing a lengthy suspension. But Tatum was not privy to any inside information, he said. So, how did he learn the news?“On Twitter,” he said. “Like everybody else.”Tatum was among the Celtics players who, on Monday, spoke publicly for the first time since the team announced Thursday that it had suspended Udoka for the 2022-23 N.B.A. season for unspecified “violations of team policies.” One by one, the players appeared on a dais for the team’s media day and, facing a bank of cameras and reporters, said they knew little about what had led to Udoka’s punishment.Marcus Smart: “It’s been hell for us. Just caught by surprise. No one really knows anything, so we’re just in the wind like everybody else. Last couple of days have been confusing.”Jaylen Brown: “Nobody really has any of the information.”Grant Williams: “I don’t know the facts.”For the players, Udoka’s absence — along with the secretive nature of the investigation into his misconduct — has been a troubling development as they try to reorient themselves for another crack at a championship run after losing to Golden State in the N.B.A. finals last season.One person briefed on the matter who was not authorized to speak publicly about it said Udoka had an inappropriate relationship with a female team employee. Another person who had been briefed said that Udoka’s violations involved one woman.Boston’s Jaylen Brown, left, is in his seventh season with the Celtics. He was the team’s second-leading scorer last season, Udoka’s first as head coach.Ezra Shaw/Getty Images“As far as initial reactions, I think we were all shocked at what was going on — a little confused,” Brown said. “But a lot of the information wasn’t being shared with us, or with members of the team, so I can’t really comment on it.”A Celtics spokesman declined to say how many violations there were.In a news conference last week, Wyc Grousbeck, the team’s majority owner, cited “privacy reasons” in declining to elaborate on the nature of Udoka’s misconduct. The Celtics’ decision to suspend Udoka came after a monthslong investigation by an independent law firm, Grousbeck said.On Monday, Tatum, Brown and Smart were among the team’s high-profile players who indicated that they did not know about the investigation while it was happening. In fact, Smart said, Udoka had recently visited him and a couple of teammates in Los Angeles. Smart was asked if anything about Udoka’s behavior struck him as unusual while he was in California.“Not to me,” he said. “I think that’s why we got so caught off guard, because it just seemed so normal.”Vague reports about Udoka’s situation emerged on social media Wednesday. At a team meeting the following day, few details were shared with players, Tatum said.“There wasn’t any more information that we found out than the things you guys heard,” Tatum said, adding: “It’s hard for me to answer if things were handled the right way or if they weren’t because, I guess for a lot of reasons, I don’t know all the details. I just don’t know.”Tatum and Brown, the team’s top two scorers last season, both said they had not spoken with Udoka since he was suspended. “It’s a lot to process,” Tatum said.Joe Mazzulla, 34, whom the Celtics hired as an assistant in 2019, will be the team’s interim head coach this season. Brad Stevens, the Celtics’ president of basketball operations and Udoka’s predecessor, said last week that Mazzulla was the best choice for the role “by a long shot.” Mazzulla, who played college basketball at West Virginia, was previously the head coach at Fairmont State, a Division II college in West Virginia.As a college player, Mazzulla twice pleaded guilty to disorderly conduct charges, according to multiple news reports at the time — first, when he was accused of scuffling with police at a Pittsburgh Pirates game, and later after he was accused of grabbing a woman at a bar.“Listen, I’ve made mistakes,” Mazzulla said Monday. “I’m not perfect. I’ve hurt people, and I’ve had to use the situations I put myself in as a younger man to learn from and become a better person. That’s what I’ve tried to focus on: How can I re-create my identity as a person? How can I rely on my faith? And how can I just have a positive impact on the people around me?”Brown, who was the subject of trade rumors in the off-season after Kevin Durant asked to be moved from the Nets, was among the players who offered Mazzulla a public vote of confidence.“I believe in Joe,” Brown said. “Joe believes in me. I’ve had conversations with him. I don’t think he sees a limit on my game. I think he’s coming in excited, so I’m optimistic.”Joe Mazzulla, who had been an assistant coach for the Celtics since 2019, will be the interim head coach during Udoka’s suspension this season.Paul Rutherford/USA Today Sports, via ReutersMalcolm Brogdon, a veteran guard who was traded to the Celtics from the Indiana Pacers in July, said he was struck by Mazzulla’s self-discipline. Over the summer, Brogdon said, Mazzulla often beat the players to the team’s training center to lift weights each morning.One day, Mazzulla noticed that Brogdon was using a balloon to do breathing exercises. Mazzulla told Brogdon that he was a fan of breathing exercises, too.“He started explaining the theories behind them and the psychology of it,” Brogdon said. “So he’s a guy that’s paying attention to everything.”Still, Mazzulla acknowledged some of the realities of the situation: that people throughout the Celtics organization need time to “feel and heal,” that he never anticipated being in this position and that he likely will need to learn on the job.The players, too, seem aware of the challenges ahead of them.“Everything that we started to build,” Smart said, “is starting over in a sense.” More

    • 113 Shares119 Views

      in Basket

      Boston Celtics’ Jayson Tatum Could Have Had His Moment

      by

      Tatum, the 24-year-old Boston Celtics forward, learned the hard way during the N.B.A. finals just how much it takes to be a championship-level leader.BOSTON — With a little more than a minute left in Game 6 of the N.B.A. finals, Celtics Coach Ime Udoka pulled his starters. That meant Jayson Tatum had a minute to sit by himself and feel the weight of disappointment that came with losing.“It hurts,” Tatum said. “Being with this group, the things we’ve overcome throughout the season, getting to this point. Just knowing how bad we wanted it, coming up short. It’s a terrible feeling.”He lowered his head as he spoke, staring at the table he sat behind.A few minutes before, Tatum had to endure the indignity of watching another team, Golden State, celebrate winning a championship on his home court. He politely congratulated his opponents, then walked off with a blank look on his face. When a fan reached down from the stands and grabbed the towel off his shoulders, Tatum didn’t even react.He had not been at his best during the finals, often guarded by Golden State’s Andrew Wiggins. In the clinching game, Tatum scored only 13 points with 7 assists and 3 rebounds, while committing 5 turnovers. It capped a difficult series in which he struggled to find a rhythm offensively. At 24, he is a foundational piece of Boston’s young core, and this could have been his moment.Celtics Coach Ime Udoka pulled his starters with about a minute go in Game 6. Tatum, center, bent his head down as he sat on the bench.Adam Glanzman/Getty ImagesOn June 1, the day before the finals began, Tatum spoke to the media and said he wanted to be honest.“There have been times where I questioned, am I the right kind of person to kind of lead a group like this,” he said. “You know, never, like, doubted myself, but just moments after some of those losses and the tougher parts of the season. That’s human nature to kind of question yourself.”He said it was important to “always stick to what you believe in and trust in the work that you’ve put in.”Then he went on.“You know, it can’t rain forever.”The Celtics had opened the season off-kilter, losing their first two games and, by early January, 19 more. They were 18-21 and appeared to be destined for an early off-season. But led by Tatum, they turned things around. They roared through the second half of the season and claimed the second seed in the East.The postseason looked to be a formidable challenge, but Tatum’s Celtics, the hottest team in the league, could have risen to the occasion. In the end, they didn’t get there.“One thing that he’s always done throughout the season was seeing multiple different coverages and figured it out,” Udoka said. “He did that throughout the first few series. This one was a rough one. Very consistent team that did some things to limit him and make others pay.“For him, it’s just continuing to grow and understand you’re going to see this the rest of your career. This is just a start.”Tatum already has a notable résumé. He has been named an N.B.A. All-Star for the past three seasons. This year, he was also named to the first-team All-N.B.A. For his performance against the Miami Heat in the Eastern Conference finals, Tatum was given the Eastern Conference finals’ Most Valuable Player Award.He averaged 26.9 points per game during the regular season and only 2.9 turnovers per game. His turnover numbers were lower than most of the players with better scoring averages than he had.When asked what the Celtics needed to improve, Tatum said: “I think just our level of poise at times throughout this series and previous series, myself included. Taking care of the ball, things like that.”For the Celtics as a whole, turnovers were a problem during the finals. Boston lost the final three games of the series, committing 15 turnovers in Game 4, another 18 in Game 5 and a painful 22 in Game 6. Golden State had its careless moments as well but responded with enough poise to recover.Golden State’s defenders, especially Andrew Wiggins, kept Tatum from scoring at will like he’s used to. He had just 13 points in Game 6.Elsa/Getty Images“It’s easy to look back and see all the things you could have done better,” Tatum said. “We tried. I know that for a fact.”To single out Tatum’s offense would be to miss some context in a series that had a defensive bent to it. Boston couldn’t score 100 points after Game 3. The Celtics held Golden State to 104.8 points per game, below its regular-season average of 111 points per game.Tatum also was able to affect the game without scoring early in the series. The Celtics scored 120 points in Game 1, their highest scoring game of the finals. Tatum added just 12 points. Golden State defenders kept Tatum uncomfortable, whether he tried to drive to the basket or shoot from outside. He began to look for his teammates instead and had 13 assists.But as the series progressed, Golden State began to take away his other options and make Boston pay for its mistakes.From Games 2 through 5, Tatum averaged 26 points per game but struggled to make a significant impact, particularly as the stakes rose.It was a departure from earlier in the playoffs. When the Celtics faced elimination in Game 6 of the Eastern Conference semifinals against the Milwaukee Bucks, Tatum scored 46 points with 9 rebounds and 4 assists. He shot 53.1 percent from the field that game.It was a feat that he couldn’t come close to matching against Golden State. There were even times during the finals when Tatum seemed hesitant to take a shot if it was there for him, opting to look for teammates instead. He also struggled to finish at the rim.“We all could have done things better,” Tatum said. “I feel like I could have done a lot of things better.”Tatum injured his right shoulder during the Eastern Conference finals but wouldn’t attribute his struggles to that injury. He was asked if he would need surgery and said he didn’t think he would.Rather, dejected after coming so close to winning his first championship, Tatum spoke only generally about the need for improvement and how difficult the night was.Celtics Coach Ime Udoka expressed support for Tatum, saying that he would “learn from this and figure it out.”Bob Dechiara/USA Today Sports, via ReutersHis teammates offered support.“Just gave him a hug, man,” Boston’s Jaylen Brown said. “I know it was a tough last game. I know, obviously, it was a game we felt like we could have won.”His coach had encouraging words, too.“The growth he showed as a playmaker this year and in certain areas, I think this is the next step for him,” Udoka said. “Figuring that out, getting to where some of the veterans are that have seen everything and took their lumps early in their careers.”He added: “High I.Q., intelligent guy that will learn from this and figure it out. I think it will propel him to go forward, definitely motivate him.” More

    • 163 Shares119 Views

      in Basket

      NBA Finals Game 6 Preview: What’s at Stake for Boston and Golden State

      by

      Stephen Curry is one win away from his fourth N.B.A. championship. Boston is trying to come back from its second 3-2 deficit this postseason.The Boston Celtics are in dire straits after losing to Golden State on Monday in Game 5 of the N.B.A. finals, leaving them in a 3-2 deficit as the series shifts to Boston on Thursday. Teams with 3-2 leads in best-of-seven N.B.A. finals have won the championship 39 of 48 times — 81.3 percent. Some of the Celtics’ regular-season woes are reappearing in the finals: They haven’t been able to sustain effort for entire games and have watched fourth-quarter leads evaporate.Golden State, meanwhile, is in the driver’s seat. On Monday, Stephen Curry had his first underwhelming game of the series, and his team still won — a bad sign for the Celtics.But there is still at least one game to be played. The Celtics have made a habit of coming back at unexpected times, including in Game 1, which featured an unexpected fourth-quarter implosion by Golden State.Here’s a look at where the series stands before a potential elimination game on the N.B.A.’s biggest stage.For Boston to Win:Can the Celtics locate Jayson Tatum?Jayson Tatum, 24, is the biggest reason the Celtics reached the finals. He is one of the best scorers in the league and is capable of dropping 50 points in a playoff game, as he did last year against the Nets in the first round. But against Golden State, he has had difficulty scoring near the basket and has had trouble with turnovers. On Monday night, he set a league record for turnovers in a postseason. Tatum is shooting 37.3 percent from the field against Golden State.If the Celtics are going to stave off elimination, they’ll need more from Tatum. But there is hope for Boston: In Game 6 of this year’s Eastern Conference semifinals against the Milwaukee Bucks, with the Celtics facing the same deficit, Tatum pulled out a 46-point performance.Turnovers have been a problem for the Celtics throughout the playoffs, particularly for Jayson Tatum, right, and Jaylen Brown.Elsa/Getty ImagesCan the Celtics stop turning the ball over?In Game 5, the Celtics had 18 turnovers, and Golden State had six. In Game 2, the Celtics had 18, and Golden State had 12. This has been a problem for the Celtics throughout the playoffs, particularly with their stars, Tatum and Jaylen Brown — who often have been stripped while dribbling into the paint. If Boston doesn’t take care of the ball, it doesn’t win. End of story.Defensively, the Celtics have been fine. Golden State has scored from 100 to 108 points in each of the first five games, which, considering its offensive talent, is acceptable. It’s on the offensive end where Boston has struggled to generate consistent looks.For Golden State to Win:Can the supporting cast show up again?For most of the series, Curry has had to shoulder an enormous offensive burden. In the first four games of the series, the Warriors shot only 37.3 percent on attempts considered wide open. That’s mostly on the rest of the Golden State players who haven’t been able to make Boston pay for tight defense on Curry.That is until Game 5, when Klay Thompson and Jordan Poole punished the Celtics from deep, making up for Curry’s 0-for-9 night from 3. Even Draymond Green, who has had a dismal series, had 8 points, serving as a crucial release valve for Curry.If Golden State’s non-Curry players hit their shots, Boston will find it very difficult to win.Does Curry have another pantheon performance in him?Golden State showed that it could win despite a bad game from Curry. But it doesn’t want to take that chance again. Curry’s 43-point performance in Game 4 was remarkable. If he can dig deep for another similar outing, he puts himself in the conversation for one of the best finals performances in history.The StakesIf Boston wins:The series will head to a winner-take-all Game 7. And if the Celtics win that, they will have completed an astonishing turnaround from January, when they were 18-21. It will prove that a team can win a championship with two ball-dominant wings who play similar games, in this case Tatum and Brown. It will also validate the team’s decision not to trade its young players for any of the established ones who have hit the market in recent years.Golden State will have to wonder whether not trading any of its young players — the rookies Moses Moody and Jonathan Kuminga and the second-year center James Wiseman — for immediate help would have been the right move to take advantage of Curry’s dwindling window.If Golden State wins:The ascension of Andrew Wiggins will reach new heights.For the first five years of Andrew Wiggins’s career, he was known mostly as a cautionary tale. The Cleveland Cavaliers selected him first overall in the 2014 N.B.A. draft and then traded him to the Minnesota Timberwolves weeks later to build a title contender around LeBron James. He showed flashes of elite athleticism, enough for Minnesota to invest a maximum contract extension in him. But the production never matched the contract. Since joining Golden State through a trade in 2020, however, Wiggins has turned his career around. This year, he played in his first All-Star Game. And in the finals, he has been, at times, the best player on either team. If Golden State wins the championship, Wiggins will have been a huge reason — and it will complete a remarkable turnaround in his career.The Stephen Curry legacy grows.If Golden State wins Game 6, it is a virtual certainty that Curry will win the finals Most Valuable Player Award, which would fill the one remaining hole in his résumé. But a championship has larger stakes for Curry. His previous titles — according to some N.B.A. observers — have not been legacy-burnishing championships in the way they have been for other stars. In 2015, Golden State beat a James-led Cavaliers team missing two of its three best players. In 2017 and 2018, Golden State beat the Cavaliers again, but Kevin Durant was arguably the best player on those teams. This would be Curry’s first championship in which he was unambiguously the best player on Golden State and the opposing team was at full strength. This championship would vault Curry higher in the discussion of N.B.A. greats.Boston will consider tinkering.Most of Boston’s key players are young and still entering their primes. Tatum and Brown are dynamic wings who can, in theory, be All-Stars for years to come. But if they lose, questions will arise about whether they can do it together. The issue for Boston is that it doesn’t have much free-agency wiggle room. With several teams expected to make improvements next year — including the division-rival Nets and Toronto Raptors — the Celtics will face difficult questions about whether making changes at the edges is enough.Draymond Green will podcast to his heart’s desire.Green has offered insightful commentary on his podcast after every game. With a championship, he’ll be able to do so guilt-free and without fans telling him to stop, in spite of his mostly poor performance in the series. More

    • 125 Shares179 Views

      in Basket

      The Boston Celtics Have Faced Elimination, but Not Like This

      by

      The Celtics have drawn confidence from previous season-saving wins. But watching a championship trophy drift away is another challenge altogether.SAN FRANCISCO — Jayson Tatum offered a resigned chuckle when he was asked about the Boston Celtics’ confidence level after losing Game 5 of the N.B.A. finals.If any nihilistic thoughts tormented him after a game in which he scored 27 points and grabbed 10 rebounds in a losing effort against Golden State, he suppressed them.“You better be confident, right?” Tatum said. “We ain’t got to win two in one day. We just got to win one game on Thursday. We’ve been in this situation before. So it’s not over. Got to win on Thursday.”The idea that Boston knows what to do when cornered in a playoff series has been repeated by the Celtics many times this postseason. They did it again Monday night after falling to a 3-2 series deficit in the N.B.A. finals, and now they face elimination on Thursday in Boston. But the assuredness with which they spoke in previous series was missing.For many reasons, the situation they find themselves in now is new territory and has left the Celtics searching for answers for how to recover in time for Game 6.“Our faith got to be at an all-time high,” Celtics guard Jaylen Brown said. “Our faith got to continue to be there. We got to play as a team, as a unit. All season long it’s kind of been like us versus everybody. I look at it as no different now.”Center Robert Williams said: “We have to look each other in the eye now. Our backs are up against the wall.”What’s familiar is that the Celtics are in an elimination game.They have played in three during this season’s playoffs and advanced by winning all of them.They were down 3-2 to the Milwaukee Bucks in the Eastern Conference semifinals, then won the next two games to reach the conference finals. There, the Miami Heat forced a Game 7, which Boston won, 100-96.Often it seemed the Celtics were making their own path harder than it needed to be, giving into lulls when they played in games that were not must-wins. They had an opportunity to finish their series against the Heat at home in six games but couldn’t. They gave up 47 points to Miami’s Jimmy Butler that night. They have been blown out by the same teams they have beat convincingly, suggesting a lack of focus.Their disregard has manifested through missteps like careless turnovers — the Celtics have given up 16.8 turnovers per game in each of their losses during the playoffs and only 12.8 in wins this postseason. They gave up 18 turnovers on Monday night.Their offense has gone stale at times, but their defense has helped save them.Before Game 5, Boston Coach Ime Udoka said the Celtics would have been 3-1 in the series if their offense had simply played better. Then they started Game 5 by missing their first 12 3-pointers.What’s changed now is that Golden State seems to have decoded the Celtics. Boston’s physicality no longer scares them. Shut down Stephen Curry? Golden State still won.The Celtics spent a lot of time complaining about fouls, called and uncalled, during Game 5.Ezra Shaw/Getty ImagesFor most of the playoffs, each time Boston lost a game, it recovered in the next. Game 5 was the first time this postseason that the Celtics had lost twice in a row — the result of a disparity in poise and adaptability, with the young Boston team on the lower end.As the series has progressed, Golden State has seemed more and more ready to pounce on the Celtics’ weaknesses.Celtics forward Al Horford said he felt that his team was “almost playing into their hands, some of the things they want us to do, which is taking contested midrange shots and probably play a little faster than we want at times. I feel like that’s part of the reason our offense hasn’t been clicking like it needs to be.”In Game 5, the Celtics also fell victim to their frustrations with the officiating, which compounded their offensive struggles. The team complained and argued for most of the night.“Probably something we shouldn’t do as much, and we all did too much,” Udoka said.What’s also unfamiliar for the Celtics as they face elimination this time is the pressure that comes with this stage of the season.After Boston took a 2-1 lead in the series, all the talk of Golden State’s advantage in championship experience seemed nonsensical. It seemed, at the time, that the Celtics lost that one game only because they lost focus, as they sometimes do. It seemed, at that time, that Boston was too big, strong, athletic and young for Golden State’s experience to make much of a difference.But now the series has reached a point that these Celtics have never seen before.“We understand what we need to do,” Curry said. “It’s just about going out and executing, trying to bottle up your emotions, knowing how hard a closeout game is.”As Boston searches for answers, Golden State smells blood.Said Klay Thompson: “I’ve never been so excited to go to Boston, I’ll tell you that.” More

    • 163 Shares119 Views

      in Basket

      Golden State Beat Celtics in Game 5, Moving 1 Win From N.B.A. Title

      by

      Andrew Wiggins powered Golden State’s victory on an off night for Stephen Curry, who went 0 for 9 from 3-point range.SAN FRANCISCO — Golden State had been mucking up its offense for nearly the entire third quarter on Monday night when Andrew Wiggins pushed the ball ahead to Jordan Poole, a young guard with enormous confidence. Just before time expired, Poole launched a 3-pointer from 33 feet that banked off the glass before rattling through the hoop.The heave was a buzzer-beating breath of life for Golden State in Game 5 of the N.B.A. finals — and for the team’s white-knuckled fans, who rode waves of highs and lows before the Warriors pulled away for a 104-94 victory that put them on the cusp of another championship.Golden State, which took a 3-2 lead in the series, can clinch its fourth title in eight seasons, and its first since 2018, when the team goes on the road to face Boston in Game 6 on Thursday night.Wiggins led Golden State with 26 points, and Klay Thompson added 21. Jayson Tatum had a game-high 27 points for the Celtics in the loss.After a solid start, Golden State was leading by 12, but four Jaylen Brown free throws and back-to-back 3-pointers by Tatum gave the Celtics the first 10 points of the second half, a surprising turn of events given Golden State’s famously torrid third quarters. The Celtics soon took the lead when Marcus Smart and Al Horford connected on consecutive 3-pointers of their own, part of a 19-4 run.Golden State missed its first eight 3-point attempts of the second half before Thompson finally made a couple, a much-needed boost for Golden State — and for Thompson, who had been having his share of struggles in the series.After Poole punctuated the third quarter with his deep 3-pointer, a shot that had the home crowd at Chase Center in a state of near-delirium, his teammates seemed to ride that crest of emotion. By the time Thompson shed Smart to make another 3-pointer, Golden State was back up by 8 points.After scoring 43 points in Golden State’s Game 4 win, Stephen Curry had a muted effort in Game 5, finishing with just 16 points and shooting 0 of 9 from 3-point range. But his teammates delivered. Golden State appeared locked in from the start, passing the ball from side to side, from corner to corner, in constant pursuit of the best possible shot. Not that the team was always able to connect, shooting 3 of 17 from 3-point range in the first half.Still, Golden State went ahead by as many as 16 late in the first quarter before Boston began to chip away with Curry resting on the bench. Smart sank a 10-foot jumper. Robert Williams forced his way inside for a layup.Golden State recalibrated as Curry secured a 51-39 lead at halftime with an up-and-under layup.Draymond Green fouled out in the fourth quarter, but his energy on offense and defense was significant in Golden State’s victory.Cary Edmondson/USA Today Sports, via ReutersIn the first half, Golden State was buoyed by Wiggins, who had 16 points and 7 rebounds, and by Draymond Green, who assembled one of his more assertive stretches of the finals. In the first four games of the series, he scored a total of 17 points. By halftime of Game 5, he had 8 points and was flying around the court.Tatum, after laboring with his shot for much of the series, was doing what he could to keep the Celtics close, collecting 13 points and 8 rebounds in the first half.Before the game, Celtics Coach Ime Udoka expressed concern that Tatum had been preoccupied with hunting for fouls rather than taking good shots. Udoka wanted him to be “more physical” on his drives.“A lot of times he’s kind of floating, going off one leg, when he can plant and go off two, finish a little stronger,” Udoka said, adding: “We’re just telling him to be decisive. He’s done it all year, seen every coverage, and for the most part has kind of picked those apart.”For Golden State Coach Steve Kerr, Monday was the 25th anniversary of a poignant moment from his playing career. It was Kerr’s jump shot in Game 6 of the 1997 finals that clinched another championship for the Chicago Bulls — their fifth of the Michael Jordan era — against the Utah Jazz.“Something every young basketball player dreams of,” he said, adding: “The finals are the finals, whether you’re playing or coaching. It’s the ultimate competition in the world of basketball.” More

    • 125 Shares149 Views

      in Basket

      The Celtics Got Lucky By Not Getting What They Wanted

      by

      Other teams’ superstars kept getting traded, and the Celtics wanted in on the action. Boston (mostly) missed out, and is probably better off for it.Moments after Game 7 of the Eastern Conference finals ended last month, Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown embraced each other.“They said we couldn’t play together,” Tatum said with a wide smile.That had been the most pressing issue facing the Boston Celtics since Tatum, 24, and Brown, 25, were handed the reins to the team before the 2019-20 season. That year — Tatum’s third and Brown’s fourth in the N.B.A. — they led the team to within two wins of reaching the finals. Since then, they have faced questions about whether Boston could be a championship-caliber team built around them.Those questions were at their loudest earlier this year — dominating TV panels and podcasts — when the Celtics were 18-21 and on pace to miss the playoffs. Instead, a remarkable turnaround propelled the Celtics into the finals, against Golden State, for the first time since 2010.“We definitely thought about and had conversations about trading for a number of the great players that were sort of thought to be available over the past 10 years,” Wyc Grousbeck, the owner of the Celtics, said in an interview. “It’d be wrong to say we never engaged in trade talks with player X, Y or Z.”But, he added, “we valued our guys more than, apparently, the market did.”The trend in the N.B.A. over the last 15 years — though it didn’t originate then — has been to chase the creation of so-called superteams at the expense of developing continuity and nurturing young players. The 2007-8 Celtics, who brought in Ray Allen and Kevin Garnett to complement Paul Pierce through blockbuster trades and won a championship, were a prominent example of this.Since then, several teams have emptied their cupboards of draft picks and young players to acquire big-name stars — as the Celtics did — in a leaguewide arms race to compete for mercenary championships. This has coincided with the player empowerment movement, where top players have tried, often successfully, to be traded to teams with other stars.This has left the players’ new teams on edge, wondering if giving up all the picks and young players will be worth it.The Celtics tried to get in on the trend — they traded for Kyrie Irving and signed Gordon Hayward to a big free-agent deal just after drafting Tatum in 2017 — but today’s team is the result of yearslong investment in young players. The Celtics are on the doorstep of a championship with a foundation that goes against what has become conventional wisdom about team-building in the N.B.A. Whether as a result of luck or shrewd front office work, or both, the Celtics’ approach is paying off.In recent years, the All-Stars Jimmy Butler, Kawhi Leonard, Ben Simmons, James Harden, Anthony Davis and Paul George have been among those to engineer trades. Irving forced a trade out of Cleveland to land in Boston.Almost every time a star was rumored to want out of their situation, the Celtics would be linked to the trade talks. Few teams could offer young players as talented as Boston’s or as many draft picks, some of which Boston acquired in a heist of a deal with the Nets as they created their own superteam in 2013.Grousbeck declined to comment on what deals Boston came close to making. In at least one case, the star seemingly made the decision for the Celtics. Davis’s father, Anthony Davis Sr., publicly said that he didn’t want his son playing in Boston — a signal that even if Davis were traded to Boston, he wouldn’t re-sign once his contract expired, making it less worthwhile for the Celtics to part with their top players in a deal.Brown, left, and Tatum were drafted one year apart. Their growth over the past five years, especially this season, has made Boston a top contender in the Eastern Conference.Elsa/Getty Images“I think that what happens is you want to trade draft capital if you get the right deals and if you feel like you’re close enough to winning,” Danny Ainge, who was Boston’s president of basketball operations from 2003-21, told Sports Illustrated recently. “None of us know what would have happened in different circumstances.”In some cases, superteam gambles worked — at least in the short term. The Toronto Raptors won the championship in 2019, led by Leonard; the Lakers won a title in 2020 with Davis. But the Nets won just one playoff series with Harden before he forced a trade to the Philadelphia 76ers in February. To get Harden from Houston, the Nets had given up the 24-year-old center Jarrett Allen, who made his first All-Star team this year with Cleveland.The Nets’ one series win with Harden came against Boston in the first round of the 2021 playoffs, with Brown out injured. The Celtics, left behind in the superteam arms race, seemed adrift. Some of their recent first-round draft picks, like Romeo Langford (2019) and Aaron Nesmith (2020), looked like misses. Irving and Hayward were gone. Kemba Walker, a former All-Star whom the Celtics had signed to a maximum contract to replace Irving, had been injured and playing poorly. Suddenly, Boston looked like a team that had, unlike the Raptors and Lakers title teams, held on to its young players for too long.The day after the Celtics were eliminated from last year’s playoffs, Boston simultaneously announced that Ainge was stepping down as team president and that Brad Stevens would replace him. Stevens had been the team’s head coach for eight seasons, but he had no front office experience.Grousbeck said he pitched Stevens on replacing Ainge, citing Stevens’s tenure with the team and a “personal bond” that he had with ownership. At the news conference announcing the move last June, Stevens said he had discussed the possibility of taking over the position with both Ainge and Grousbeck, and that he told Grousbeck: “I love the Celtics. I want to do what’s best for the Celtics.”One of Stevens’s first moves was to hire Ime Udoka as coach, Udoka’s first leading role after nine years as an assistant. Grousbeck said he wasn’t worried about the inexperience of Stevens and Udoka in their new jobs.“I went to Ime and Brad before the season started and specifically said in person, ‘I’m not stressed about how this season starts,’” Grousbeck said.There are countless examples of professional sports owners preaching patience but not practicing it. As the season progressed, the Celtics mostly kept the faith that they could win with Tatum and Brown as their centerpieces.“Now, did I start worrying in the first half? Yes, I did. But I kept it to myself,” Grousbeck said.Marcus Smart, left, has been a vocal leader for the Celtics and critical as a defender. He was named the defensive player of the year this season, the first guard to win the award since Gary Payton in the 1990s.Winslow Townson/Getty ImagesAfter their 18-21 start, the Celtics went 33-10 and earned the No. 3 seed in the Eastern Conference playoffs. Most of the players in their finals rotation were drafted by the Celtics and are 25 and younger, including Tatum (24), Brown (25), Robert Williams III (24), Grant Williams (23) and Payton Pritchard (24). Marcus Smart, 28, was drafted by the Celtics in 2014 and named the defensive player of the year this season.This would appear to leave the Celtics in strong shape for years to come. They’re in the finals and many of their players haven’t hit their primes. But championship windows can be slim. After this year, the N.B.A. will have crowned at least five different teams as champion in seven years. The Celtics might end up regretting not trading for Davis or another big name if they don’t win a title this year. After all, just one year ago, when the Celtics looked to be locked into mediocrity, the Phoenix Suns came within two wins of a championship, only to slink out in the second round of this postseason despite being the West’s No. 1 seed.But if Boston wins, perhaps the next team will think twice before striking a deal when the next Harden or Simmons tries to force a trade. The Celtics aren’t quite the model of patience — a stroke of luck, it seems, felled their superstar trade negotiations — but what they have appears to be working just fine.Not that Grousbeck is interested in taking a victory lap.“I don’t think anybody needs any advice from us about building a team,” Grousbeck said. More