Cal Basketball: Ex-Bears Jason Kidd, Jaylen Brown Set for the Thrill of Game 7
We’re not going to argue with Jaylen Brown.
"The best two words in basketball are Game 7,” Brown said, looking ahead to the Boston Celtics’ matchup Sunday against the defending NBA champion Milwaukee Bucks.
In fact, two former Cal players will be involved in fascinating Game 7 matchups on Sunday.
Brown, who played the 2015-16 season for the Bears before jumping to the NBA, will take aim at a spot in the Eastern Conference finals, where the Miami Heat await. Tipoff is 12:30 p.m. on ABC.
Then, at 5 p.m. on TNT, coach Jason Kidd leads the Dallas Mavericks into a Game 7 duel with the Phoenix Suns, owner of the best record (64-18) in the NBA this season. At stake is a trip to the Western Conference finals and a duel with the Golden State Warriors.
Brown, 25, has put together the best season of his six-year NBA career so far. We’re not talking about scoring stats here, but his overall growth and evolution as a young star in the league.
Kidd, the 49-year-old Hall of Fame point guard, has delivering his best coaching job in his first year running the Mavericks, his sixth season as a head coach with a third different team in the NBA.
In both cases, Brown and Kidd have exhibited leadership growth. It’s what first-year Celtics coach Ime Udoka needed from co-stars Brown and Jayson Tatum for the team to continue climbing toward a possible NBA crown. It what Dallas owner Mark Cuban hoped to see from Kidd following the exit of coach Rick Carlisle after 13 seasons.
The results?
Brown and Tatum have ended all conversation about whether the Celtics should break up the young duo and retool their lineup. And Kidd has the Mavericks on the doorstop of their first conference finals since he and Dirk Nowitzki led the franchise to its only NBA title in 2011.
Brown’s continued emergence as an elite NBA player is easily tracked. He has scored better than 20 points per game each of the past three seasons, and his growth as a postseason performer is dramatic.
In his past 19 playoff games, dating back to the 2020 campaign, Brown has contributed an average of 23.3 points, 7.2 rebounds, 3.3 assists and 1.7 steals on 50 percent field-goal shooting, 39 percent on 3’s and 80 percent from the free-throw line.
Compare those to the numbers he assembled the first 52 games of his postseason career: 13.2 points, 4.4 rebounds, 1.3 assists, 0.7 steals on 46 percent field goal, 35 percent 3-point and 74 percent free throw accuracy.
“That’s something that myself and Jayson have been challenged to do more,” Brown said after Game 3 of the Bucks series. “Taking the reins, and it’s something we’ve grown (at). Being a leader.
“Speaking to different guys separately in different ways. Finding ways to inspire, motivate, influence your teammates and sometimes you’ve got to be creative in those regards. I’ve been a little more vocal, and I’ll look to keep doing that.”
Brown acknowledges that providing vocal leadership wasn’t always part of his personality. Now he sees it as necessary.
“I’m one of the longest-tenured Celtics here,” Brown told CelticsBlog recently. “Not oversaturating your voice, but speaking when it’s necessary. Especially in those moments where things might not be going the way we want them to go, all is not lost. Keep faith through the adversity, through the ups-and-downs. Winter always turns to spring.”
The Celtics have shown maturity by winning their past two road matchups against the Bucks, and now will try to close out at home.
"I expect it to be loud. I expect it to be fun. And I expect to be a part of a great game,” Brown said. “I’m looking forward to it.”
Kidd was a leader on the court starting with his days at St Joseph-Notre Dame High in Alameda, which he directed to back-to-back state championships. He continued in that role as an All-America point guard for the Bears and as a pro, guiding his teams into the postseason the final 17 seasons of his NBA career.
He had two head-coaching stints before returning to Dallas, and never got his team as deep as the conference finals. His 2013-14 Brooklyn Nets team won its opening-round series before being ousted. The 2014-15 and ’15-16 Bucks teams, featuring a young, undeveloped Giannis Antetokounmpo, lost in the first round.
Kidd credits his time as an assistant with the Lakers as helping him round out his coaching acumen, and he arrived in Dallas with a clear plan: Coax one of the NBA’s most prolific offensive teams into playing championship-caliber defense.
“There’s never been a team that is just going to be strictly number one in offense and 25th in defense that’s going to win a championship. It just has never worked out,” Kidd told reporters before the start of the playoffs.
“Being able to play both sides of the ball, if the ball’s not falling for you offensively, you have something to fall back on. And that’s defense, and this group really believes that.”
The Mavericks won 52 games this season — the most since 2011 — and did by making big strides on defense.
Dallas finished the regular season ranked second in the NBA in fewest points allowed at 104.7 points per game. No previous team in the franchise’s 42 seasons had done better than fourth in the league in fewest points allowed.
In their 13 playoff games the past two seasons — all of them against the Los Angeles Clippers — the Mavs gave up at least 100 points in all 13 games, and 118 points or more in seven of them.
Their defense showed up in a big way in the Mavs’ 113-86 win over Phoenix in Game 6 on Thursday night. Dallas held the Suns below 40 percent shooting, forced 22 turnovers — including 13 by the superstar backcourt duo of Devin Booker and Chris Paul — and allowed Phoenix to score just 14 fourth-quarter points.
Forward Dorian Finney-Smith, who came into the NBA six seasons ago as an undrafted player who specialized in defense, was asked recently if he ever expected the Mavericks to become so adept at that end of the floor.
“Naw, but I’m happy it’s now,” he said. “Our offense is going to come, regardless. We’ve got great offensive guys, and coach, he runs good sets to get guys going and get the ball moving. All we’ve got to do is control the defensive end and the shots are going to go in.”
The shots go in because so many of them are hoisted by young superstar Luka Doncic. Perhaps Kidd’s biggest achievement has been convincing Doncic to exert himself on defense and have an impact at that end.
“I actually think I got way better defensively” Doncic told reporters back in January. “But it’s our team defense, like I always say. Our team defense has been helping me to get better too.”
Jalen Brunson says credit goes to Kidd.
“He just helped us buy in a little more. Holding us accountable, us as players holding everyone accountable as well,” Brunson said. “I think for the most part, it’s just being able to see a play or have a play happen and move on to the next one knowing that we can get better from it.”
Even Carlisle, who coached the Indiana Pacers this season, sees the difference. “That’s a team that's got a real chance,” he said earlier this season, “not only to come out of the West, but they're a good contender.”
Cover photo of Jason Kidd watching Mavs star Luka Doncic by Joe Camporeale, USA Today
Follow Jeff Faraudo of Cal Sports Report on Twitter: @jefffaraudo