Draymond Green and the Golden State Warriors learned a valuable lesson during their blowout loss to the Boston Celtics on Sunday: Defend Jaylen Brown.
Green matched up against Brown during the first quarter and dared the Celtics' All-Star wing to shoot from 3-point range, leaving him wide-open for much of the frame. Brown responded by going 5-for-9 from beyond the arc and notching 19 points in the first 12 minutes.
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Brown's torrid start set the tone for a 52-point Celtics victory. The 27-year-old, who finished with a game-high 29 points, thought Green's defense -- or lack thereof -- was "a little disrespectful."
On Tuesday, Green attempted to explain the Warriors' bold defensive strategy.
"We didn't implement that defensive game plan because we thought Jaylen Brown can't make shots," Green said on his podcast, The Draymond Green Show. "You implement that defensive game plan because you feel like he's gonna take it upon himself to shoot more, and more, and more, and more, and take their offense out of rhythm. Take their offense out of rhythm, makes it a lot easier to beat them.
"Yes, you usually employ that game plan with guys who aren't as good as shooters as Jaylen Brown, but like I said, Jaylen Brown's a 34-percent 3-point shooter going into the game so you're not overly worried that Jaylen Brown's going to start hitting 3s. And he did, he made them. So guess what? You go into that game 3-0 on the road trip, you've got a free swing. If you can come out of that road trip and you're 3-1 with that road trip we had, you feel pretty good about yourself. So you go in with this free swing, you implement this game plan, and it didn't work. We move on."
Immediately after Golden State's demoralizing defeat, Green claimed the team decided on the strategy 15 minutes before leaving the locker room.
"I thought it was fun to try," Green told reporters. "I was actually all for it, like, 'Let's try it and see if it works.' If it doesn't, oh well. If it does, we found something. All right, it didn't work, so we move on."
The Warriors can take solace from the fact they aren't the only team to fall to the C's by 50 or more points this season. The Indiana Pacers and Brooklyn Nets suffered the same fate, making Boston the only team in NBA history to have three 50+ point wins in the same season.
The red-hot Celtics take an 11-game win streak into Tuesday night's showdown with the Cleveland Cavaliers.
