Boston Celtics Jaylen Brown has been making a lot of bold claims lately, including that he’s the best two-way player in the game.
Brown has certainly made his case on offense. He just had the second 50-point game of his career and is having the best offensive season of his career, stepping up in Jayson Tatum’s absence. He’s averaging 30.1 points per game for the season, including 32.8 points per game over his last 16 games.
While Brown’s offense is getting a lot of attention, he’s also been one of the league’s best defenders this season. He’s holding opponents to a 39.4 percent field goal rate as the closest defender, ranking second among 111 qualified players.
Brown’s aware of this stat, too, reposting it on X.
Brown’s always been one of the league’s better defensive guards, so that’s not too surprising. Still, he’s taken his defense to another level this season, maintaining a high effort level on that end of the floor even while taking on a larger scoring load.
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He’s guarding opponents tightly, closing out well and disrupting their shots, making it difficult for them to score on him. The league is shooting 47 percent as a whole, so holding opponents to 39 percent is extremely impressive, especially considering Brown often guards some of the other team’s best players.
For example, he volunteered to guard Los Angeles Clippers star Kawhi Leonard on Saturday, then helped hold him to 6 of 17 shooting.in the Celtics’ 146-115 victory.
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In other words, Brown is talking the talk and walking the walk.
Featured image via David Dermer/Imagn Images
