EchoBlog

BOSTON — Hours before an In-Season Tournament matchup with the Indiana Pacers on Dec. 4, Jaylen Brown completed a workout and plopped down on one of the courtside seats. He knew what to expect from Tyrese Haliburton and the rest of the Pacers that night.

“They play fast,” Brown said. “I’m a fan of how they play.”

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Indeed, the Pacers have a unique style. They race up and down the court unlike any other team in the NBA. With Haliburton leading the way, they seem to live forever in transition, hunting down their next fast-break bucket. Even in the half court, they operate with purpose. They fly.

By calling himself a fan of that brand of basketball, Brown might have dropped the first hint of his desire for the Boston Celtics to ratchet up their own pace. Since then, he has revealed that he has urged his team to lean into faster play.

“That’s what I’ve been trying to emphasize for our coaching staff and everybody all year,” Brown said recently.

It seems Brown is not just a fan of the Pacers’ style. He wants to adopt shades of it in Boston. The Celtics, who entered Monday ranked 23rd in pace, aren’t likely to become one of the league’s fastest teams overnight, but Brown wants them to look more for transition opportunities. He stressed that goal after a recent short-handed win against Orlando, during which the Celtics, missing all of their usual centers, started Lamar Stevens at the position.

“I think we just are playing faster,” Brown said. “We had all guards, all smalls out there so our advantage was speed. And that’s how I want to play all the time. Like, let’s run on a made basket, on a missed basket.”

The Celtics haven’t committed fully to running so far this season. They rank 15th in average time to shot at 11.7 seconds, according to Inpredictable. The website tracks time to shot after made baskets, defensive rebounds, offensive rebounds and turnovers; the Celtics don’t rank higher than 15th in any of the categories. They are 23rd in the percentage of possessions that begin with a transition play, according to Cleaning the Glass.

That’s not necessarily a flaw. The Celtics can thrive in the half court. They have thrived in the half court. They lead the NBA with a 20-5 record and already have 17 wins against teams .500 or better. (No other team has more than 12.) They have been great so far the way they’ve played. Brown just believes his team can struggle when it slows down too much. When asked Sunday what traits he wants the Celtics to show as a team, he began his answer by saying they need to “set the tone on defense, first and foremost.” After detailing what he wanted Boston to accomplish on that end of the court, he pivoted to his next area of emphasis.

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“And I think playing with a pace,” Brown said. “I think a lot of the times we get in trouble is when we walk the ball up, play slow, allow teams to load up. I like the version of us when we’re getting up and down, making the right reads and playing with a little pace. I think those two are going to lead us in the right direction. Also, taking care of the basketball is important, keeping turnovers down, and not fouling, and I think that contributes to Celtics basketball.”

Brown excels in transition, where he scores 7.7 points per game, the third-highest average in the NBA, according to Synergy Sports. It’s no surprise he would like to run and gun more, but that mindset can sometimes clash with the tempo of some of his teammates, including Jayson Tatum. Marcus Smart used to regularly hit Brown with backdoor passes early in the shot clock, but some of those opportunities have dried up with Smart now in Memphis. The Celtics have still set up Brown for some of those easy buckets, but not as many as he used to get that way. With Kristaps Porziņģis and Jrue Holiday on the roster, the Boston players have needed to get used to the new mix. Joe Mazzulla said he believes they have recently been “playing fast, but we’re playing with poise, which is important.”

“They’re all good in their own way in what they’re able to do, and they’ve kind of learned each guy’s role when they’re in transition,” Mazzulla said. “So Jrue does a good job of finding guys, whether it’s flips or getting to his post-ups. Jaylen does a good job of attacking the rim. Derrick (White) does a good job on either his pull-up 3 or his paint attacks. Al (Horford) and Sam (Hauser) re-space, Payton (Pritchard’s) pace has gotten really good, and the fives really do a good job of getting JT hook screens in transition, so they’ve all kind of gotten into what their role is and they figure it out on their own.”

Based on Brown’s recent comments, he wants the entire Celtics team to keep running. They will have another chance to do so Tuesday when they start a four-game Western Conference road trip against the Golden State Warriors.

“Another big challenge,” Brown said. “Back-to-back here at home to an early game and to a cross-the-country back-to-back is tough. Scheduling is tough, but we’re not going to make no excuses. It’ll be a good challenge for us. Can’t skip no steps. Gotta come out and compete every single night.”

(Top photo of Jaylen Brown and Tyrese Haliburton: Trevor Ruszkowski / USA Today)

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