Marcus Smart said Celtics teammate Jaylen Brown (and Jayson Tatum) “don’t want to pass the ball.”
Brown didn’t exactly prove Smart wrong yesterday.
In Boston’s 91-82 loss to the Clippers, Brown took 36 shots without registering a single assist. That ties former Celtics forward Antoine Walker and former Cavaliers forward Mike Mitchell (twice) for most field-goal attempts without an assist in a game since the NBA-ABA merger:
*playoffs
In fairness to Brown, he had eight potential assists, per NBA.com. His teammates just missed all those shots. According to ESPN, no player has had more potential assists without an actual assist in a game this season.
Boston was just ice cold from downtown, including on a few looks set up by Brown. The Celtics shot a dreadful 4-for-42 on 3-pointers (10%). Brown (1-for-13 from beyond the arc dragged down the average.)
But eight potential assists are not a great amount for someone who controlled so much of the offense with Tatum sidelined. Brown took thrice as many shots as any of his teammates outside Al Horford (who took 22 fewer shots than Brown – and still had eight assists). Brown’s passing is a relative weak spot in his overall stellar game.
With people already predisposed to question Brown’s distributing, last night’s box score serves as a harsh piece of supporting evidence.
