Celtics star Jaylen Brown was named an Eastern Conference All-Star reserve Thursday night.
Brown is now a three-time All-Star, having made three of the last four All-Star Games. He will play with Jayson Tatum, an East starter, against the West All-Stars on Sunday, Feb. 18, in Indianapolis.
Brown entered Thursday night’s game against the Lakers averaging 22.6 points, 5.4 rebounds and 3.7 assists per game. He’s shooting a career-best 49.4% from the floor and averaging a career-high 4.0 assists per-36 minutes. Brown is also turning the ball over at his lowest rate since the 2019-20 season.
The 27-year-old overcame a slow start to again establish himself as one of the best players in the league. Brown’s defense powered his selection, which was determined by a coaches vote. As of Thursday, he ranked 26th in defensive win shares and top-20 by field goal percentage allowed as the primary defender at 43%, ahead of former All-Defensive selections Giannis Antetokounmpo and Jrue Holiday, among others.
Celtics coach Joe Mazzulla opened up about his voting process before Tuesday’s win against Indiana, highlighting defense and winning plays.
“Winning is important, looking at defensive metrics just as much as the offensive metrics, I think that’s really important, because I think that our guys that are up for All-Star don’t get the praise they should for their defensive metrics,” Mazzulla said. “Guys have been top-five in defense for like 10 years or however long they’ve been in the NBA. And it’s not talked about in success as much.
“So I definitely look at both offensive and defensive metrics, and I think winning is important, and I think some of those stats that we have that just aren’t box score stats, like affecting their teammates, all that stuff.”
Brown is coming off his first All-NBA campaign. Celtics center Kristaps Porzingis and point guard Derrick White were strong candidates to be All-Stars and were not selected, but could still potentially make it as a replacement.
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