There was nothing flashy about Jaylen Brown’s performance on Monday night.
An efficient 20 points, 8 rebounds and 4 assists with only one turnover to his name and four steals to Portland’s, it wasn’t another 30-point scoring masterclass, but it was patient, winning basketball, and it was done against a defensive coverage hellbent on forcing the ball out of his hands.
Through double-teams, blitzed pick-and-rolls and a reliance on primary defender Toumani Camara, appropriately nicknamed “The Shadow,”
the Trail Blazers adjusted out of the first quarter to make life as difficult as possible for the All-Star starter, and yet, a controlled late-game performance proved to be a difference in a midseason slugfest.
The 12 minutes and 46 seconds Camara spent matching up on Brown was double the amount of time of the next closest Blazer-on-Celtic matchup last night (Donovan Clingan’s 6:12 on Neemias Queta came in a “close” second). It wasn’t a far cry from Portland and Boston’s first meeting, where Camara spent 8 minutes on Brown during the Blazers’ 114-108 win on Dec. 28.
Considering Camara’s reputation as a star-guarding defender, that’s not an easy day in the office for Brown, especially when pick-and-roll actions are blitzed to force the ball elsewhere. Yet, Brown’s difficult shotmaking gene and ability to force rotations through his own gravity led to a productive 18 points on 8-of-13 shooting against that matchup. Despite just one of his four assists coming against Camara, you could see the hockey assists and extra passes come into play, particularly down the stretch as Boston’s offense did just enough to close the door on a Portland team that lingered around for the bulk of the game.
For your enjoyment, here is a compilation of that matchup (both makes and misses) out of the halfcourt:
What you’ll notice early is the success Brown had in the pick-and-roll game, burying three shots against drop coverage from both Clingan and Robert Williams. Portland didn’t give him that luxury outside of the first quarter, however, jumping those screens and forcing Brown out of the comfort zone he built during Boston’s hot-shooting first quarter.
As that video progresses, you’re seeing more isolation work directly against Camara. On paper, that’s a tall task for any shot creator. Camara is built to sustain drive contact, and his 7-foot wingspan allows him to cover ground even if you get a step on him, but Brown manages to utilize his own strength (and perhaps the occasional push-off) to generate the minimum space requirements needed to bury shots from the mid-range.
What that isolation work also does is give Brown more court vision to sense where the help is coming from.
In the fourth quarter, Brown didn’t make a single shot, or register even one assist, but the way he moved the ball into space was instrumental to Boston getting clean looks despite their No. 1 option receiving the bulk of the defense’s attention.
In the two-clip package below, neither fourth quarter play registers on the box score, and only one ends in a made basket, but notice the attention Brown is drawing at the start of each clip and how he’s working the ball into space.
In the first clip, he sees three defenders in his area and breaks down the defense with a tough-angle kickout to Derrick White. The second is a pass over the double team where Sam Hauser wisely cuts into space to give him an outlet over the defense, which generates an open mid-range jumper.
In this last clip (of lesser quality because NBA.com cuts off the entire possession), Hauser is again the safety valve opening up for Brown, this time on a play that puts this game away for good.
Boston wants to get the ball in Brown’s hands, so they run a gut screen that doesn’t shake Camara but at least gets the ball successfully to Brown, albeit far out beyond the 3-point line. Like his namesake, Camara perfectly shadows Brown to keep him from attacking, but Hauser is all over this possession, ghosting a screen that forces Jrue Holiday to communicate to Shaedon Sharpe to take an off-ball switch, which comes just a little too late as Hauser loops back around toward the nail to receive a lofted pass over the outstretched arms of Camara.
Hauser gets to a soft spot in the defense, where he has space to pitch it to White for the game-sealing dagger.
That possession took three passes and 18 precious seconds off the clock, and the Celtics were able to come away with a home win where their star player made winning plays against a defense that dared anyone else to find the bottom of the net.
