Celtics’ Jaylen Brown makes second All-Star team, selected as reserve
When Jaylen Brown was snubbed from being an All-Star last season, the Celtics star insisted it didn’t bother him. But a year later, he made sure that mistake wouldn’t happen again.
Brown has earned what he’s richly deserved. On Thursday night, the Celtics’ seventh-year wing was selected to his second career All-Star game, as he was chosen by NBA coaches as a reserve. He’ll join Jayson Tatum, who was voted as a starter, as well as Joe Mazzulla and the rest of the Celtics coaching staff for the All-Star festivities in Salt Lake City, Utah. The All-Star Game is on Feb. 19.
Brown just missed out on being named an All-Star starter last week when he was edged by Brooklyn’s Kyrie Irving and Cleveland’s Donovan Mitchell in the voting for Eastern Conference backcourt players. But it was a virtual lock that Brown would be selected as a reserve. He’s enjoying a career year, averaging a career-high 27.0 points and 7.1 rebounds per game for the first-place C’s.
Along with Brown, the rest of the Eastern Conference reserves are Philadelphia’s Joel Embiid, Chicago’s DeMar DeRozan, Miami’s Bam Adebayo, Milwaukee’s Jrue Holiday, New York’s Julius Randle and Indiana’s Tyrese Haliburton.
Bucks star Giannis Antetekounmpo and Lakers star LeBron James were voted as the team captains and will select their squads moments before the All-Star Game. Mazzulla will coach Team Giannis.
Robert Williams had one of his most efficient offensive games of the season in Wednesday’s blowout win, as he finished with 16 points on 7-for-8 shooting in 19 minutes. But those numbers only tell part of the story.
It’s obvious that Williams is a game-changer defensively, but he’s also a major key to unlock the Celtics’ offense.
