The Boston Celtics have surged into third place in the Eastern Conference after holding off the Toronto Raptors on the road, winning 121-113. Boston has now won 10 of its last 12 games and boasts the league’s best offensive rating over that span.
Jaylen Brown has continued to set the tone for the Celtics, and Sunday evening was no exception. He delivered 30 points, 8 rebounds, and 5 assists against the Raptors, once again showcasing his all-around impact. We’ve always known Brown to be an elite scorer,
but his playmaking has stood out especially in this latest performance.
Brown only had five assists, but that was not indicative of how many shots he created though four of those were for three-pointers. He had seven potential assists, and he continued to make the correct read when he saw help.
The first play highlights one of Toronto’s central defensive principles in this matchup: loading help at or near the nail to discourage drives from the top of the key. On this possession, Brown attacks and runs straight into Jakobe Walter, who steps over to provide help and, in doing so, leaves Derrick White wide open on the perimeter for a clean three-point look.
Brown in this one starts the offense with some defense. Jordan Walsh plays dodgeball with Neemias Queta for a second, but the ball eventually finds Brown. What’s important is that Brown is always in attack mode. Even on plays where someone is slightly open, he elects to drive away from them to create an even cleaner look. He took one dribble to the paint away from Payton Pritchard and that shifted Walter and Jakob Poeltl, opening the behind the back pass even more.
Here, the Celtics run a Spain pick-and-roll (backscreen on ball screener’s man).
As Queta sets the ball screen on the left side, you can see Poeltl go to that side preparing for Brown. Brown sees that and spins the other way rejecting the screen. This allows him to get a step on Scottie Barnes and drive downhill. The drives forces help from the corner, and JB delivers the ball to Walsh for the three.
On this play, the Celtics run “77”, which is two consecutive on-ball screens. The Celtics call this “Double.” They create two switches this play, but a theme with Barnes you’ll see is that he never wanted to switch off Brown. Here he does everything but switch onto Brown to stay close to him and give Hugo Gonzalez and open three.
Celtics go to Spain PnR again on this one, but Pritchard sees that Poeltl, the player he’s supposed to screen, is hedging on Brown so he spaces to the wing. What this does is make Immanuel Quickley the tagger. “Tagging” on defense in the pick and roll is when someone bumps the roller or gets in their way momentarily, so they don’t give up an open layup and give time for their teammate to get back. The problem is Quickley is a guard, and the roller is usually a big who can finish.
Barnes and Poeltl stay on Brown for a second, and he gets the pass on time to Queta. I felt Queta had an opportunity to go up over Quickley or hit Walsh on the cut. He does end up making a solid enough play getting it to Pritchard for a three, but this all starts with Brown getting two on him and hitting the roll.
Celtics run a simple pick and roll here, and the same thing happens. Poeltl hedges making Brown take a step back, but since this is only for Barnes to get back on to Brown, that means Queta has an opening. Brown gets it to him on the short roll, and he scores.
Brown just takes advantage of the strength difference and moves Walter into the paint with his shoulder. This causes Quickley to help off Pritchard, and Brown sprays it out to him.
Yet another spray out to a shooter because Brown is a relentless attacker.
Lastly, the Celtics Killer Whale offense targeting Quickley and Poeltl settled them down when the Raptors stormed back. Some plays it took more than one time to get Barnes to get off Brown, but here Pritchard does a nice job forcing the separation. But again, Barnes doesn’t switch onto someone else. He decides to linger around Brown, and now the Celtics have a numerical advantage. They just play basketball after that.
