For whatever reason, the Golden State Warriors decided that providing Jaylen Brown with space to shoot on Sunday would be a smart defensive strategy. That was a grave error for which the Celtics All-Star made them pay dearly.

 

To Brown’s amazement, Steve Kerr’s Warriors managed to outplay him right away on Sunday afternoon at TD Garden. Considering that he’s shooting a career-high 50.2 percent from the field this season, he was initially taken aback. He then felt a little degraded.

 

Brown then went to work. He fired since the Warriors had allowed him to. In the first quarter, he scorched Golden State for 19 points, shooting a solid 6-for-12 from the field and 5-for-9 from three. By the end of the quarter, he was in full flame-thrower mode, making three straight threes to give Boston a 30–21 advantage.

 

Brown joined Ray Allen as the only other Celtics player in history to make at least five 3-pointers in the first quarter.

By the end of the first quarter, the Celtics had a 44-22 advantage thanks to his explosion, and Boston never looked back. En route to a 52-point victory, the C’s led by as much as 56 points, which is the third-largest margin of victory in Boston club history. The squad broke the previous NBA record with their third 50-point victory of the year.

Kerr attempted to clarify Golden State’s strategy following the crushing defeat. It’s likely that the strategy has already been destroyed and won’t be discussed again.

“You try different things, you have to pick your matchups. We wanted Draymond [Green] to be able to help on drives, and make sure that we weren’t giving up easy stuff in the paint,” he said. “The killer was the transition from the beginning all the way to the end. They got 42 transition points. You’re not winning a game with that kind of defensive – or lack of defensive awareness.”

Brown said it was the first time that he’s ever seen a defense take such a lax approach defending his shot. 

“For the most part, my job is to get to the paint. I don’t take a lot of threes because we have enough of that,” Brown said after the win. “But if you want to dare me to shoot, we can do that too. I thought it was a little disrespectful, but we took advantage of it and we didn’t look back.”

“We were really grateful for that,” Celtics head coach Joe Mazzulla said of Golden State’s strategy. “As we talked about, teams are going to guard us in different ways and we’ve just got to stay open-minded to what gives us the best chance to win. There is a gameplan, but when the game starts, the game will tell us what we need to do. So, I just kept saying, ‘Thank you’ and kept empowering Jaylen. Credit to his teammates for empowering him to just continue to play.”

Brown said he didn’t take it personal, but he was certainly motivated to show the Warriors just how silly that approach was throughout the game. 

“I’m sure they thought that’s what their best chance was, or whoever came up with their defensive concept. So, it’s not personal. It was a little disrespectful to me, but you know, it is what is,” he said. 

“I came out and I did what I do best. My teammates empowered me,” Brown continued. “On this team, it’s about making the right plays and making guys feel involved. I feel like I’ve been doing that all season long and I’m going to keep doing that. But don’t get it twisted.”

With all due respect, Brown stated after the game that more teams should use this tactic while playing the Celtics.

However, considering how well the Warriors executed that strategy, it’s likely that Brown won’t see another defensive tactic like that one again.

On Sunday, Brown and Jayson Tatum combined for 56 points, which helped the Celtics win easily, 140-88. That served as yet another warning to the other NBA teams that the Boston Celtics are the strongest club in the conference and should not be underestimated.

“We handle business and take care of it, but we don’t do it arrogantly. We do it with humility,” Brown said after the win. “It’s a lot of respect for the Golden State Warriors but we feel like it’s our time now.”

Boston has now won 11 straight and sits at 48-12 on the season.