Celtics' Jaylen Brown reveals gamble vs. 76ers that backfired

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BOSTON — In today’s NBA, almost everybody can shoot, so teams have to choose wisely when deciding which player to sag off of. The Boston Celtics chose poorly on Christmas Day, allowing Philadelphia 76ers forward Caleb Martin to catch fire at TD Garden and burn them during a 118-114 loss.

Martin finished with a season-high 23 points, just five points shy of tying his career-high output. The C’s didn’t leave him open the entire game, yet a few lightly contested triples were all Martin needed to get going. Following the Celtics’ third defeat in four games, reigning NBA Finals MVP Jaylen Brown revealed that forcing Martin to make plays was part of his squad’s game plan.

“He's done that before to us in the past, but going into it, we felt comfortable with letting him take all them shots, and he just knocked them down tonight,” Brown admitted.

Caleb Martin had never made seven three-pointers in an NBA game, regular season or playoffs — until Christmas Day in Boston, when Martin went 7-9 from beyond the arc in the Sixers' win over the Celtics.

All of Martin's made threes in Boston: pic.twitter.com/mLUeAeONlp

— Adam Aaronson's clips (@SixersAdamClips) December 26, 2024

Boston is very familiar with what Martin can do. During Game 7 of the 2023 Eastern Conference Finals, the former Miami Heat hero notched a playoff career-high of 26 points. Martin’s second-best playoff outing also came against the Green Team, as he posted 25 points in Game 2 of that same series. Unsurprisingly, the Celtics fell in seven games to the Heat and let Martin average 19.3 points while shooting an incredible 60.2% from the field.

Although the North Carolina native nailed seven 3-pointers on Wednesday, Celtics head coach Joe Mazzulla stuck by his strategy for the most part. He argued that to slow down a talented team like the 76ers, who roster stars like 2023 MVP Joel Embiid, 2024 All-Star Tyrese Maxey, and nine-time All-Star Paul George, somebody will have to be left open.

“If you want to slow Maxey and Embiid down, you have to bring the game to someone,” Mazzulla claimed. “I’ll go back and look and see which [3-pointers] were heavily contested, but that’s the Catch-22 against good teams who are shooting the ball well. They put you in a tough spot.”

Embiid, Maxey, and George combined for 72 of Philly’s 118 points while the Sixers shot 42.5% from deep and 46.6% from the floor. Add Martin’s surprising performance and the Celtics’ brutal turnovers to the mix and it’s easy to see how Boston was pushed to the limit on defense.

Were the Celtics right to sag off of Caleb Martin?

Before coming to Beantown, Martin had only made four triples in December. Even after hitting eight of his 11 field goal attempts and seven of his nine shots from beyond the arc, Martin is still averaging under 10 points per outing this season despite playing a career-high 29.4 minutes through 23 games.

So, there was real evidence to support Mazzulla’s tactics. However, betting against any NBA player always involves risk—just ask Brown. In early March, the Golden State Warriors thought giving up open shots to Brown would pay off. Instead, the three-time All-Star dropped a game-high 29 points, making five of his 10 attempts from 3-point land, in the Celtics’ 52-point drubbing of the Dubs.

Jaylen Brown on the Warriors game:

"If you want to dare me to shoot, we can do that too. I thought it was a bit disrespectful." pic.twitter.com/81Wao466uC

— Noa Dalzell (@NoaDalzell) March 3, 2024

No matter what game plan the Celtics employ, Mazzulla and company want a consistent level of effort on defense every game. Celtics star Jayson Tatum knows his guys came up short in that regard against the Sixers.

“I think we gotta take some ownership. We gotta be better,” he asserted. “We gotta acknowledge the things that we’ve done not so great. We gotta look in the mirror and man up, and we just gotta be better.”

The Celtics have now lost back-to-back games for the first time since April 11th. The 22-8 reigning champions aren’t in panic mode, but their next two contests against the Indiana Pacers on Friday and Sunday feel a lot more significant.

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