Mike Brown Plays With Fire, Gets Singed

Posted by Zach Lowe on May 12, 2010 807425 commentshttp%3A%2F%2Fcelticshub.com%2F2010%2F05%2F12%2Fmike-brown-plays-with-fire-gets-singed%2FMike+Brown+Plays+With+Fire%2C+Gets+Singed2010-05-12+16%3A13%3A18Zach+Lowehttp%3A%2F%2Fcelticshub.com%2F%3Fp%3D8074

Did you catch what Mike Brown did early in the 2nd quarter? If I were one of those sports fans who take it personally when opponents “disrespected” my favorite players, I might say Mike Brown disrespected Paul Pierce.

Check the play-by-play: Anthony Parker came into the game for LeBron James with 9:06 left in the 2nd quarter. Mo Williams and Delonte West were already in the game, meaning Anthony Parker would shift over to the small forward position. (Shaq and Varejao manned the front line).

The C’s had a more traditional line-up in: TA at the point with Ray, Pierce, Big Baby and Sheed.

And guess what that meant? Anthony Parker would have to guard Paul Pierce.

Mike Brown had just spent 36 hours talking about why he doesn’t like this match-up! In discussing why he wasn’t totally uncomfortable with the idea of LeBron guarding Rajon Rondo, Mike Brown said this (via ESPNBoston.com):

“You put LeBron on Rondo when he’s doing a nice job of making Paul work and you have to put a smaller guy on Paul and we all know what Paul is capable of doing,” Brown said. “You do that for long stretches and it can open up a can of worms.”

And what did Mike Brown do? He opened up the can of worms himself—and he did it with LeBron on the bench!

And Pierce went to work. He drove by Parker and drew a foul (9:03). He drove into the paint and forced the D to collapse, leading to an open look for Big Baby (8:49). He got by Parker on a screen/roll with Perkins, drove into the lane and missed lay-up on which he was likely fouled (8:10).

Then he started scoring. He got Parker in the air on a pump fake, drew a foul and hit 1-of-2 at the line (8:02). On the C’s next possession (7:20), he overpowered Parker on the right block and made an easy  lay-up after a gorgeous pump fake to freeze the help defenders.

LeBron came back in at the 7:09 mark, so Pierce’s mild abuse of Shelden Williams’ brother-in-law was over. It’s far too simple to say the one free throw and one field-goal Paul Pierce made in this stretch “got him going” or “jump-started him” or whatever bad cliché you’d prefer.

But I know this: If I’ve got a superstar scorer struggling and moping, I’d think hard before I handed him the same favorable match-up I’ve tried to avoid all series—even if it’s just for 1:57.