It is safe to say the Warriors' Jaylen Brown game plan failed miserably in Sunday's blowout loss to the Boston Celtics at TD Garden.
To Golden State players and coaches, it was an experiment gone wrong that became a valuable lesson learned. To Brown, it was the ultimate motivation.
"First time it's ever happened to me. Honestly, I was a bit surprised," Brown told reporters after Boston's 140-88 win. "A little bit of adjusting, but I think we just took advantage of whatever that attempt was and just made the best of it.
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"For the most part, my job is to get to the paint. We got enough 3-point shooters on our team, so I don't take a lot of 3s throughout the season 'cause we got enough of that. I get to the paint, and I usually open it up for everybody else.
"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."
The Warriors' defensive scheme for Sunday's matinee matchup included sagging off Brown near the perimeter, hoping to prevent the three-time NBA All-Star from thriving in the paint, where he usually does. But the 27-year-old guard, who is a career 48 percent shooter from the field and hits 36.4 percent from 3-point range, took advantage of the "disrespect" and made the Warriors pay big time.
Brown torched Golden State with 19 of his game-leading 29 points in the first quarter, finishing the game shooting 11 of 19 from the field and 5 of 10 from beyond the arc.
Golden State Warriors
"It's never personal," Brown said. "I'm sure they thought that's what their best chance was, whoever came up with that defensive concept. So, it's not personal. It was a little disrespectful to me, but it is what it is. I came out and I do what I do best. My teammates empowered me. They were like, 'You know what? We don't care if you shoot every shot down.'
"On this team, it's about making the right plays, letting guys feel involved. And 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."
After the blowout loss that stopped Golden State's eight-game road winning streak, Warriors coach Steve Kerr explained the logic behind the defensive strategy.
“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,” Kerr told reporters. “The killer was the transition, from the beginning all the way until the end. They got 42 transition points. You’re not winning a game with that kind of lack of defensive awareness.”
Brown came across Kerr's comments on social media after the game and sent a cryptic message to other coaches and teams around the league.
While Brown claimed he didn't take the defensive scheme personally, he did acknowledge Golden State's "mind game" fired him up, as he was seen egging on the crowd in Boston at various moments -- something the typically reserved player doesn't often do.
Brown also was asked if the Celtics' history with the Warriors played a factor in him and his squad coming out more focused and extra energized Sunday. The teams met in the NBA Finals just two seasons ago, and the best-of-seven series was six games of pure competition, intensity and some off-and-on-the-court drama.
"Yeah, and that's credit to them," Brown admitted. "The Golden State Warriors have been the best team in basketball over the last 10 or plus years, so absolutely nothing but respect on our behalf. And I think that's exactly how you show it. You come out and you play hard and you compete. That's what we did from the tip.
"I started on [Steph] Curry, I started with my pressure, and it just followed throughout. In those moments when we have that same mentality where everyone's on the same page, we'll be tough to beat."
Defending Curry wasn't something Brown had to ask for, rather an assignment Boston's coaching staff decided going into the game.
Brown wasn't just dialed in offensively, but he locked in on the other end of the floor, too. Curry finished with just four points on 2-of-13 shooting from the field and missed all nine of his 3-point attempts, finishing with a minus-29 in plus/minus rating in 17 minutes. Granted, the 3-point king, along with Klay Thompson and Draymond Green, didn't play the entire second half because the deficit was too large.
Despite the history between the organizations, Brown tipped his hat to Curry and the Warriors for what they've been able to accomplish over the last decade-plus.
"For sure. I view Steph as one of the greatest of all time," he said. "You could put him in the top 10. He's been able to dominate this era in the last 10 years, so it's the ultimate level of respect, to be honest, and that's all I view it as."
And while Brown made it clear that the respect is there, he believes it's now time for a new team to take over the league -- and he's confident it's his Celtics.
"We don't take the grain for granted," Brown said. "We didn't come out and mess around, and that's just how we show our respect to the game. We handle business, but we don't do it arrogantly. We do it with humility, and there's a lot of respect for the Golden State Warriors. But we feel like it's our time now."
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