The Boston Celtics were notably absent from the NBA Defensive Player of the Year voting.
In all, 12 players received votes — none play for Boston — with Memphis Grizzlies big man Jaren Jackson Jr. taking home the award a year after Marcus Smart became the first guard in nearly three decades to earn the honor.
It was somewhat surprising the Celtics didn’t have at least one representative get even a third-place vote — Derrick White would have been the best choice — especially after Boston finished second in the entire NBA only behind the Cleveland Cavaliers in defensive rating in the regular season.
While the Celtics haven’t come right out and said it, it’s clear they feel slighted about the lack of recognition for their defense and have used the first two games of the opening-round playoff series against the Atlanta Hawks to make a statement on that end of the floor.
“We’ve been a group that has hung our hats on defense all year,” Celtics star Jaylen Brown told reporters following a Game 2 victory, per league-provided video. “I think we started the transition from, even when Brad Stevens was the head coach to Ime Udoka taking it up a notch and even now. We’re a defensive group. We play both sides of the ball and we do it at a high level.
“Sometimes it goes unnoticed, sometimes people depend on analytics to make their decisions, but when it come down to it, in moments like this, this is where our defense matters the most in the playoffs. We’re looking forward to showing what we can do on that side of the ball this playoffs, me included.”
The Celtics put the clamps on a Hawks attack in Game 1 that came in buzzing as they had the fourth-best offensive rating in the league since the All-Star Break. But led by the defensive tenacity of Smart, who gained plenty of praise for his effort, the Celtics held the Hawks under the century mark for just the third time this season.
Game 2 was much of the same as the Hawks used a late surge in garbage time to get into triple digits. Boston has completely erased Atlanta’s leading-scorer in point guard Trae Young as well with the two-time All-Star being wildly inefficient to begin the series but vowing he will be better moving forward.
Maybe getting completely left out of the Defensive Player of the Year voting was the best thing for the Celtics as they clearly have an edge on the defensive end that’s propelling them to success.
