76ers-Celtics Reaction: What Jaylen Brown MUST IMPROVE for Boston | NBA Reaction

76ers-Celtics Reaction: What Jaylen Brown MUST IMPROVE for Boston | NBA Reaction

Boston Philly. Kind of a a fun little defensive slugfest between two teams that have incredible perimeter talent, but that have thin front lines, right? Um Joel Embiid out of the lineup. Obviously, we know all the guys that are out for Boston. I was really impressed by the sharpness of both teams with their defensive rotations on the perimeter and just the overall speed of their roster on display. The Celtics did a very good job defending Tyrese Maxi. Bunch of guys got reps on him. Pritchard got reps on him. Derek White got reps on him. Jordan Walsh who played a really really good basketball in that second half after like Josh May not ended up Joe Missoula didn’t give us any details but I think it was of like a behavior thing kind of like a in the coach’s doghouse kind of thing but Josh May not basically didn’t play after his first shift. So um uh Jordan Walsh ended up getting the start in the second half and he was very good did a very good job guarding Tyrese Maxi as a team. The Celtics swarmed him and forced him into some really tough shots. On the other end of the floor, Philly showed some more resilience defensively than they’ve shown over the course of the last few weeks. They held the Celtics below 110 points, which is the first time they’ve done that uh to an opponent since Brooklyn, which was like a few weeks back. So, finally got to see some defensive resistance uh from Philly. And you got to see a lot of their guard speed like Tyrese Maxi doing a better job defending in hedges and recovers, better job chasing guys off the line in their rotations. The game basically swung back and forth on two hot streaks. Derek White had a massive third quarter run where he started to get going as a shot maker and just hit a bunch of tough ones in a row gave the Celtics a 9-point lead. And then in the fourth quarter, and something that’s kind of been a recurring trend here for the Sixers, I’ve watched several Sixers games this year where Justin Edwards’s second half shooting ended up playing a big role. He got crazy hot from three again. and he had three threes in a row in that fourth quarter stretch in the middle of the fourth quarter and he ended up putting the Sixers back up by one. Kind of degraded down into super ugly basketball down the stretch. Tyrese couldn’t really get a good look for himself. The Celtics actually got several good looks that they just missed. Uh Peyton Pritchard missed a little mid-ranger against drop coverage around the foul line. That’s a really good look for him in the final minutes. Derek White got uh Jaylen Brown had a really nice play where he got VJ Edgecomb on a post. Uh backed him down, drew a double team out of the strong side corner from Derek White’s man, made the kick out. Derek White wide open corner three and he just happened to miss it. And in that ugliness, the Sixers just got the last word. There was a play where Tyrese Maxi drives down the right lane line and Jaylen Brown comes over and throws kind of an impromptu double team against Maxi. That ends up leaving Justin Edwards wide open at the top of the key. Payton Pritchard has inside position on Kelly Ubé and is guarding him, but he has to throw a closeout at Justin Edwards. So, he throws the close out at Justin Edwards. Justin Edwards misses the three, but that leaves Kelly Ubé standing underneath the basket with inside position. He gets a very easy offensive rebound putback. Derek White ends up fumbling the ball away on the ensuing possession and having to settle for like a 45 foot heave. uh Kada gets like a decent little opportunity for a putback, but it’s a really a really tough play on such a long distance three like that and Philly ends up getting out of there with a win. And just goes to show you on that final possession, like you know, we talk about that ability to be an advantage creator. When you bring two to the ball, there’s all sorts of trickle down effects. Like one of the trickle down effects is you generate a wide open three for Justin Edwards, right? But the other trickle down effect is you actually brought Peyton Pritchard to throw a close out even though he didn’t really have any chance to get out there and that ended up leaving Kelly Ubé wide open in rebounding position. another trickle down effect of the advantage creation of Tyrese Maxi in his ability to consistently draw lots of attention from Boston’s defense. I want to turn the focus to Philly’s defense for a minute. Again, it was their first time holding an opponent under 110 points since the Brooklyn game a few weeks back. We talked so much about their speed on offense, but I think we saw more of its efficacy on the defensive end of this game with Tyrese Maxi doing a good job being uh like being active in his hedges and recovers as Boston was really looking to attack Tyrese Maxi with guard guard screens in this game. And then I thought they rotated really well. Again, when you’re fast, you can do a better job rotating around than the team that is slower. In theory, that’s something that it should be a strength of this particular team. I thought their on ball guys did a great job on Boston’s guards all game in their individual work. Again, Philly’s been one of the surprises of the early part of the season. Uh but ultimately, if they’re going to have any chance to compete in the conference, they’re going to have to guard. And I thought you saw a much better effort from them on that end of the floor in this game. On the Celtics front, some really good minutes from Jordan Walsh. Um, again, this is something that we’ve seen like this high motor kind of do everything athletic forward is always popping from Boston, which I think is a really strong indicator of just what made Jason Tatum so valuable to this team. He did all of that stuff. the switch ability to guard on the perimeter, the excellent defensive rebounding, the athleticism and rim pressure that he brings to the table, but then at the same time, he also brought superstar level shot creation as part of that uh responsibility, which is what makes him one of the best players in the league when he’s healthy. But like Josh Manh, you know, ends up getting into Joe Mazula’s doghouse and Jordan Walsh just hooped his ass off. He guarded Maxi really well. He was active running the floor in transition and as a cutter and as a rebounder he got like a little contact dunk on a transition sequence. He hit a corner three out of the left corner. Again, I I just think it’s a reminder of how that high motor forward is the clear area of opportunity for this season’s version of the team while Jason Tatum is out. I thought the third quarter was a good sign that Derrick White is starting to find some rhythm after a brutal start to the season. He’s still not efficient, but he’s starting to score at more volume over the course of the last three games. And then again, that third quarter in particular, I just think it’s like a sign of him kind of building momentum towards being a better, more efficient offensive player. But this defensive rebounding thing continues to be an issue. They’ve been the fourth worst defensive rebounding team in the league to start the season, and it just cost them another game. And I want to call some attention to Jaylen Brown here. And to be clear, it is not just Jaylen Brown’s fault. I’m coming after Jaylen Brown here because he’s one of the guys who has the tools to really help impact this flaw that the team is having. So just look at the final possession for instance. If you watch the film after Jaylen Brown throws the double team at Maxi and the ball gets swung around to Justin Edwards, he actually does go back under the basket, but then he just kind of stands there and looks up while Kelly Ubé gets the ball instead of seeking out Kelly throwing a box out or high pointing the ball going and getting that thing right. And like this is the thing, like Jaylen Brown’s averaging his lowest rebounds per game since 2019 in this season and he’s capable of being better. This is a player who averaged seven rebounds per game in 2023. He is the guy who is most most athletically capable of supporting his team on the glass for the majority of their lineups. I think Jaylen devoting a little bit more of his energy and focus resources towards being a ball hawk on the defensive end when the shot goes up will go a long way towards helping them survive on the glass. The Celtics are right there on the precipice of starting to pull some of these games out. They’ve lost five clutch games so far, which is the second most in the NBA. They’re two and five in seven clutch games. And they can clean that up. They’re giving up an offensive rebound on 41% of their opponent’s m misses in crunch time this season. They can do better than that. They’ve been missing some clean looks like we talked about with the Derrick White and Pton Pritchard shots. If those go in, that gives you a better chance to win, right? Like Derek White missed a little floater in the lane that like literally hit every single part of the rim and barely rolled off with like a minute left. That like like just a little bit more of that shot making, clean up the defensive rebounding. They can be a little better defensively than they’ve been. I think they have a 131 off a uh defensive rating in crunch time to start. If you can start flipping those close games from losses into wins, then you’re in much better shape in the standings and they have some fixable things they can do there to help address that. All right, guys. That’s all I have for today. As always, I sincerely appreciate you guys for supporting us and supporting the show. Again, we’ll be back tonight for uh on playback for Lakers Thunder and then tomorrow morning for some game reaction. I will see you guys then.

Jason reacts to the Philadelphia 76ers barely beating the Boston Celtics on a Kelly Oubre putback. He discusses Tyrese Maxey’s continued great play and why Jaylen Brown needs to get in the rebounding mindset to help his team win while Jayson Tatum remains out.

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