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USA Today via Reuters

USA Today via Reuters

The Boston Celtics recently faced off against the Golden State Warriors. Both sides looked to be in equal contention at the start when they tied at 21-21. Soon enough, however, the Celtics started to gain the edge, with team shooting guard Jaylen Brown pulling off a great offensive with his 29 points, 3 rebounds, and 3 assists. Warriors coach Steve Kerr was not impressed by how his team was handling the performance, going so far as to bench his starters right after halftime. The effort was in vain and with a score of 140-88; the Celtics registered their 11 win in a row and their third largest in the history of the franchise.

During the post-game interview, Steve Kerr was asked about his decision to not focus much of the defensive energy on Jaylen Brown. The coach replied “You try different things. You have to pick your matchups”. He insisted that Draymond Green was helping the team “on drives” and the coach was ensuring that the Warriors did their effort to not let their rivals get away “with the easy stuff”. Kerr’s comments garnered the attention of the MVP of the game. He retweeted the same from his X account and mocked the coach by writing “More teams should take this strategy”.

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It definitely came as a surprise to many when the Warriors chose to sag off Brown after the latter scored a game opening 3 pointer on an open look and then returned back to his opponent’s side of the court to make a turnaround jumper. It was even more surprising when the Warriors continued to ignore Brown during the course of the game. However, the absence of the proper attention only worked in the latter’s favour, leading him to take the Celtics to 44-point lead by halftime.

During the post-game interview, Brown admitted that the situation was very unusual for him, since he was usually the one who opened the game up for everyone else.

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“If you want to dare me to shoot, we can do that, too” said Brown. “I thought it was a little disrespectful. But we took advantage of it and we hit them back.”

How has Jaylen Brown been performing this NBA season?

The Warriors made a mistake in keeping their eye off Jaylen Brown during this recent game. The team could have been more careful about the same, given the track record that the player was establishing for himself this season.

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Out of the 53 games in which he has appeared in this season, Brown has managed to average 22.5 points, 5.5 rebounds and 3.3 assists. While there are players with a more impressive points sheet, Brown’s efforts have been reflected even beyond the court as he maintains a great professional partnership with Jayson Tatum and worked with him to place the team as the top seed on the Eastern Conference points table.

Brown’s efforts have often reportedly been left underappreciated by NBA fans. The same was visible when the Celtics faced off against the Pacers back in January. Despite the fact that the player ended up putting an impressive 40 points, he ended up being on the receiving end of a tirade of backlash on social media. With this recent win, let’s hope that the public perception starts to change around the shooting guard, allowing him to be known as a force to be reckoned with.