Pregame Post-Ups: Brown To Step in for Bradley Again in Phoenix

Sunday, March 5 - Celtics at Suns

Pregame – Brown To Step in for Bradley Again in Phoenix

PHOENIX – There is no team in the NBA better equipped to defend talented backcourts than the Boston Celtics. Sunday afternoon in Phoenix, however, the C’s will be down one of their top perimeter defenders.

Brad Stevens announced before tip-off that Avery Bradley, who returned Feb. 27 from an 18-game absence with an Achilles injury, is out again today with a tweaked hamstring. Bradley, an All-Defensive First Team performer last season, is arguably Boston’s top defender.

Jaylen Brown will replace Bradley in the starting lineup. Also of note, Jonas Jerebko will start in place of Al Horford, who is out with an elbow sprain.

Brown will team with Isaiah Thomas, Marcus Smart, Terry Rozier, Gerald Green and James Young as Boston’s perimeter defensive unit. Though down one player, that group is capable of slowing down Phoenix’s talented backcourt that includes Eric Bledsoe, Devin Booker, T.J. Warren (yes, we’re including him here… more on that later), Brandon Knight, Tyler Ulis and Leandro Barbosa.

Brown, who is coming off of a 16-point, eight-rebound performance against the Lakers Friday night, is now the key to that group. He possesses small-forward size but has proven that he’s more than capable of defending high-level 2-guards. What was once a question mark for Boston while playing without Bradley is now a maintained strength, as the C’s learned that Brown has the physical attributes and mental capacity to defend the league’s elite 2-guards.

“On that last West Coast trip, we talked about it, he started before we left by guarding (J.J.) Redick, he guarded (C.J.) McCollum, he guarded (Gordon) Hayward,” Stevens said. “Today he gets Booker … I thought he’s done some things really well in those games.

“He’s had to get better at negotiating the screens, but he’s a really good athlete, and so as he’s gained more experience and more technique work, he’s gotten even better.”

Brown and his perimeter teammates will have their hands full against Bledsoe, Booker and Co. this afternoon. Bledsoe and Booker combined to average 41.9 points per game, and the team’s top four scorers are perimeter-oriented offensive players. That group includes Warren, who Stevens included as a part of Phoenix’s backcourt. Warren can score from all over the court but is more perimeter-oriented.

Phoenix’s perimeter scorers have been particularly hot of late. During the team’s two-game winning streak, the fivesome of Bledsoe, Booker, Warren, Ulis and Barbosa has averaged 68.5 PPG. That’s an impressively high number.

Reaching that number again this afternoon, however, should pose as quite a challenge. The Celtics may be missing one of their top defenders, but they know that with Brown filling in for Bradley, they’re still more than capable of playing shutdown defense on the perimeter.

- Marc D'Amico