Brown makes contribution: Defense aids Celts' cause

["Stephen Beauregard" <sb@xxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Brown makes contribution: Defense aids Celts' cause
By Steve Bulpett/Celtics Notebook
Sunday, November 23, 2003

It was hard to feel it Friday night in Philadelphia, but there were a couple
of bright spots in the Celtics' come-from-ahead loss to the 76ers.

     Paul Pierce [news] went back to throwing the first punch with his
offense, but you knew that was in his arsenal. And while you also had an idea
that Kedrick Brown [news] was a pretty fair defender, his job on Allen Iverson
drew plaudits from coach Jim O'Brien (``fantastic job''), who was generally
not given to pleasure after watching his club drop its fourth game in five
starts.

     Iverson scored 24 points, but made just 8-of-25 shots. Many of the
attempts were of the awkward variety as he tried to get the rock over the
6-foot-7 Brown.

     Brown is still taking tentative steps at the offensive end - he's hardly
alone in that - but he realized that defense is his ticket to the game inside
the lines.

     ``Day in and day out, I don't know how many shots I'm going to get, but I
know I'm going to play defense,'' Brown said. ``I'm just taking pride in that
right now. That's how I'm staying on the floor and getting my minutes, so I'm
just going to continue to do that.''

     He is also aware that, even if he's not scoring as perhaps he can, his
defense is helping someone else, namely Pierce, provide points.

     O'Brien stated many times that job No. 1 for his small forward is to
complement Pierce.

     ``That's a big part of what I can do,'' Brown said. ``I know it's good
for Paul. I love taking the challenge every game. Every game I'm on the team's
best shooter, I take pride just holding them under their average.

     ``It takes some of the load away from Paul so that he doesn't have to do
so much on defense, so it really helps him on offense.''

     Pierce went for a season-high 33 points against the Sixers, while Brown
handled much of the dirty work, chasing Iverson through screens and using his
size when warranted.

     ``It's really tough with a player like him, but I just wanted to press up
on him and make him take tough shots,'' Brown said. ``And that's what he
did.''

     Said Walter McCarty [news], who has drawn his share of Iverson duty in
the past: ``Kedrick has a nice low center of gravity and he's very quick. And
he gets off his feet really quick to challenge shots, so he did a really good
job on him. He didn't let him get easy looks and didn't let him get to the
basket easy.

     ``He made Iverson shoot the ball high.''

     As for his own shot, Brown isn't getting it down. He's averaging 6.1
points on 43 percent shooting, but he's yet to seem totally secure with his
place in the attack.

     ``That's coming,'' he said. ``It's coming along. I'm just taking the open
shots when they're there. I'm not forcing anything. I'm not worried about the
shots. As long as we can win and as long as I play defense, everything's going
to come together.''

     Audition time

     The Celtics are still trying to sort out some of their bodies in the
rotation.

     The issue was helped in a way when Raef LaFrentz went on the injured list
and freed up some minutes, but things are still experimental.

     For instance, Jumaine Jones was expected to start at small forward
against Philadelphia, but he was a DNP and played just four minutes Wednesday
against New Orleans after starting the previous two games.

     ``It's a case right now of me wanting to give everyone a fair look,''
said O'Brien.

     ``I don't lose any sleep when I come to a decision as to who should play
and who should not play. I just think it's so close right now that for me to
say to somebody, `You're not going to play,' when he is every bit the player
of a guy that is playing would be foolish on my part. I'd rather let it work
out, and if it doesn't work out I will use players for a shorter period of
time.

     ``It may just shake itself out because guys will get banged up. But if
everybody remains healthy, there will come a time where somebody will be so
outstanding that he will just get the brunt of the minutes.''

     Take a breath

     For Celtics fans fretting after an 0-3 week, we offer the calming words
of New Orleans guard David Wesley, who still keeps tabs on his former team.

     ``I think they're going to be all right,'' he said. ``The problem they're
having now is that they're still not quite sure about what they're running.
But that takes time. I think when they go out and they have a game plan and
it's not quite working the way they want it to, you kind of lose a step or
two. That's where they're at right now.'' . . .

     Want to know where Danny Ainge is at? He was in Delaware yesterday
scouting a high school tournament.

     With two first-round picks in the Celts' pocket next June, the early line
has it likely the club will take at least one young project.

Thanks,

Steve
sb@xxxxxxxxxxxx