At a team film session prior to earning a 124-95 road win over the Dallas Mavericks on Thursday night, Boston Celtics star Jaylen Brown had a request to make.
Well, it was more of a demand than a request from Brown and he wasn’t going to get any pushback from Celtics interim head coach Joe Mazzulla.
“I’m guarding (Luka) Doncic,” Mazzulla relayed to reporters what Brown said following that contest, per NBC Sports Boston. “And I said, ‘OK.'”
While Brown didn’t singularly guard the Mavericks star for the duration of the game, he was part of a collective effort that stymied Doncic into a subpar offensive performance.
Doncic, who came into the contest having averaged a stellar 44.5 points over his previous six games, was held to a mere 23 points on 7-for-23 shooting, including an eye-popping 0-for-6 showing from beyond the arc.
Brown fought through early foul trouble to be a part of that strong defensive effort on the MVP candidate and finished with 19 points on 6-for-12 shooting to go along with seven rebounds and three assists.
And Mazzulla believed Brown, starting with wanting to take on the challenge of guarding Doncic, was a key catalyst in helping the Celtics get back into the win column after two straight uninspiring losses.
“The great thing about Jaylen was he asked to guard Doncic tonight,” Mazzulla told reporters. “He got three fouls. Kind of took him out of his rhythm in the first half and I thought he did a great job in the third quarter of not forcing it himself, but playing the right way and finding the right play for him and for his teammates. I thought the team really fed off of that.”
