Jaylen Brown made a massive offensive impact Thursday night in Denver. But he feels he could have contributed more on the defensive end.
The nuggets of Denver defeated Brown’s Celtics 115-109 at Ball Arena thanks to a brilliant performance from Nikola Jokic, who finished with 32 points, 12 rebounds and 11 assists. Jokic made several big plays down the stretch with C’s big man Kristaps Porzingis guarding him in isolation, including a bully-ball layup and an incredible alley-oop with teammate Aaron Gordon.
Asked about the difficulty of defending Jokic, Brown – who exploded for a game-high 41 points in the loss – suggested he should have faced the two-time NBA MVP more.
“Jokic is just a monster out there,” Brown said. “We threw him different coverages, we guarded him one-on-one, we tried to get help late and stuff like that.
“I feel like I should have guarded Jokic a little bit more, a little bit more. I wish I had a little bit of those opportunities. I could have kept him away from the basket and we could have taken away some of his these layups. got.”
Brown is very proud of his defense this season. He insisted before the season that he and the Celtics needed to hang their hats on defenseand he supported this speech by often asking to guard the opponent’s best player. This is a good sign that Brown wanted to keep Jokic, and perhaps his physicality could have kept Jokic from getting into the paint, where the big man is a lethal playmaker.
Jokic is arguably the best player in the NBA for a reason. He answered every coverage the Celtics threw at him, from matchups with 7-foot-2 Porzingis and 6-foot-4 Jrue Holiday to late double teams, and it’s fair to wonder if Brown could have prevented an outcome similar.
If the Nuggets and Celtics meet again in the NBA Finals, don’t be surprised if head coach Joe Mazzulla grants Brown’s wish and gives the All-Star power forward the defensive opportunity he’s been looking for Thursday evening.
