Jaylen Brown’s defense vs. Luka Doncic among keys to Celtics’ title

Jaylen Brown’s defense vs. Luka Doncic among keys to Celtics’ title originally appeared on NBC Sports Boston

The Boston Celtics would not have won the 2024 NBA Finals without Jaylen Brown’s excellent defense on Dallas Mavericks superstar Luka Doncic throughout the five-game series.

Brown was consistently picking up Doncic full court, making him waste valuable seconds off the shot clock, preventing him from getting the ball, fighting hard over screens and just being really physical with the Mavs guard.

The Celtics star even stole the ball from Doncic a couple times in the series, including this play from Game 1:

Brown took on the challenge of defending Doncic for much of Game 5. He spent 7:10 of game time guarding Doncic, and the Dallas star scored just four points on 2-of-6 shooting as the Celtics secured a 106-88 win and the franchise’s 18th championship.

In fact, over the last three games of the Finals, Doncic shot a lackluster 2-of-11 and scored just four points when Brown was the primary defender, per the NBA’s tracking data.

This kind of defense is among the reasons why Brown won the Bill Russell NBA Finals MVP Award.

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Here are some more Doncic vs. Brown numbers, via NBC Sports Boston’s Chris Forsberg:

Luka Doncic when defended by Jaylen Brown in the NBA Finals:

154.4 possessions
32:04 matchup time
21 PTS
9-22 FG (40.9%)
2-8 3PT (25.0%)
5 TO
2 Shooting Fouls

It was the most matchup time logged by a Celtics player vs an opponent in any round of the postseason.

— Chris Forsberg (@ChrisForsberg_) June 18, 2024

The Mavericks had a lowly 84.4 offensive rating during the 154 possessions when Brown guarded Doncic over the five games, per Bleacher Report’s Andy Bailey.

Jaylen Brown defended Luka Dončić for 154.4 possessions in the Finals. Dallas scored 131 points on those possessions. That’s an 84.8 offensive rating.

— Andy Bailey (@AndrewDBailey) June 18, 2024

“They were physical a lot,” Doncic said of the Celtics’…

Source link : https://sports.yahoo.com/jaylen-browns-defense-vs-luka-191532614.html

Author : NBC Sports Boston

Publish date : 2024-06-18 19:15:32

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