The Celtics and Knicks almost faced off at full strength on Thursday night, but Boston was without its MVP candidate, Jaylen Brown, who sat out with left achilles tendinitis. JB missed a couple of games with this ailment recently, but came back and looked fine. This is most likely a strategic day off with a back-to-back against the Pelicans looming on Friday night.
Somewhat famously now, the Celtics have been excellent without Jaylen on the floor this season, and they’ve been able to win at a very high level even in the games he has missed. But most of those wins weren’t against contending teams, and there’s a reason that the war on his on/off numbers has felt disingenuous all season.
The bottom line is that Jaylen has been the Celtics’ best player this season, and in the biggest moments, against the best players, he’s been the guy who rises to the occasion and has carried Boston to the promised land.
With Jayson Tatum back in the mix, he doesn’ tneed to carry as large of a burden as often, but we’ve still seen that when things get tight and physical, especially down the stretch, it’s Jaylen who takes over, and his absence was felt in a big way on Thursday night as the Cs fell to the Knicks in a tight one, 112-106.
Brown’s rim pressure was sorely missed
Tatum is already more than capable of running the offense, but in a matchup like this, Boston needs their advantage of having both Jays to shine through. The Knicks have two weak defenders out there almost all the time in Karl-Anthony Towns and Jalen Brunson, but on Thursday night, the Celtics weren’t able to take advantage.
JT isn’t back to 100% physically, and he wasn’t able to punish Brunson enough on switches. Jaylen, on the other hand, has been a monster attacking mismatches, and you just know that down the stretch, he would have been getting Brunson or KAT switched onto him and blowing by them, beating them with his first step, or bullying his way to the rim.
He has become one of the best in the league at pressuring the rim, and when teams sell out to take it away, he has become lethal in the midrange. Those may not be the most efficient buckets, but volume scoring is what gets it done in gritty, playoff basketball.
Boston loves seal-hunting, and this Knicks team has plenty of seals to hunt. The Celtics were missing their ultimate killer whale on Thursday night, but if these teams face off again in the playoffs, they are going to have two healthy Jays, and they should be able to exploit the shortcomings of the New York defense.