{"id":131155,"date":"2025-03-27T14:46:07","date_gmt":"2025-03-27T18:46:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/?p=131155"},"modified":"2025-03-27T14:46:07","modified_gmt":"2025-03-27T18:46:07","slug":"jaylen-brown-kristaps-porzingis-celtics-playoff-run","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/2025\/03\/27\/jaylen-brown-kristaps-porzingis-celtics-playoff-run\/","title":{"rendered":"Jaylen Brown Insists Celtics’ Playoff Run Hinges on Star Teammate"},"content":{"rendered":"

The\u00a0<\/span>Cleveland Cavaliers might have held onto the East’s top seed<\/span><\/a>\u00a0throughout the season, but the\u00a0<\/span>Boston Celtics<\/span><\/a>\u00a0are widely considered the East’s best team and the league’s top-tier team. That’s no disrespect to the\u00a0<\/span>Oklahoma City Thunder<\/span><\/a>, who have essentially rampaged through the league since day one. Boston is simply a complete team all around. If the Thunder were to lose\u00a0<\/span>Shai Gilgeous-Alexander<\/span><\/a>, god forbid, to an injury, OKC is done. That is not the case for the Celtics; if either <\/span>Jaylen Brown<\/span><\/a>\u00a0or\u00a0<\/span>Jayson Tatum<\/span><\/a>\u00a0went down in the playoffs, they still have a solid chance of competing and contending. Would they be locked-in title winners? That’s another question, but their chances would be far greater than OKC’s. However, it’s not Brown or Tatum that holds the keys to Boston’s upcoming postseason run. In Brown’s eyes, it’s another Celtics star.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Jaylen Brown Insists Celtics’ Playoff Run Hinges on Star Teammate<\/h2>\n

Boston Celtics’ Jaylen Brown Praises Kristaps Porzi\u0146\u0123is; Says ‘He’s the Key’<\/h3>\n

Kristaps Porzi\u0146\u0123is<\/span><\/a>\u00a0has had his bout with injuries since joining the Celtics; that’s a fact. Still, his impact while healthy has been nothing but instrumental. He was vital to their regular season success last year, their playoff run, and eventual raising of the trophy. Interestingly enough, once the 2024-25 regular season ends, Porzi\u0146\u0123is will have played fewer games than last season (57). Despite that, Brown is confident in what Porzi\u0146\u0123is brings to the table, and the playoffs are no exception. Brown is adamant that formerly-crowned “The Unicorn” is the Celtics key to another postseason run, as long as one specific element remains intact.\u00a0<\/span>On Wednesday, he spoke about Porzi\u0146\u0123is’s impact<\/span><\/a>\u00a0following Boston’s 132-102 defeat of the Phoenix Suns.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s been great, he\u2019s been balling, been playing well, shooting the ball well, making the right plays, and big time, we going to need him this year in the playoffs. Keep him healthy, he\u2019s the key, KP\u2019s been balling all season.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

Brown’s emphasis on health is key before Porzi\u0146\u0123is is the key because if he’s not healthy, or suppose he gets injured and takes a seat for a few games or longer, Boston loses an incredibly important player in their rotation. Porzi\u0146\u0123is is having a career year shooting the three-ball (40.3%). His production is solid all around, almost mirroring last year’s numbers. In 37 games this season, he’s averaging 19.7 points, 7.0 rebounds, and 2.0 assists while shooting 48.9% from the field.<\/p>\n

Why Boston Over Cleveland<\/h3>\n

It might be too late for the Celtics to catch the Cavaliers and overtake them for the number one seed in the Eastern Conference. That said, as good as Cleveland has been this year, Boston is still the conference’s number-one threat. Both squads have superior and formidable starting fives compared to the rest of the league, but Boston has the greater talent, skill, experience, and playoff testing on their side. In a season series split 2-2,\u00a0<\/span>all four contests were relatively close throughout<\/span><\/a>, and Tatum and\u00a0<\/span>Donovan Mitchell<\/span><\/a>\u00a0were each side’s top scorers in all four matchups. \u00a0It may come down to whose superstar scores the most. Or, it may come down to which starting five out duels the other. If that’s the case, the\u00a0<\/span>advantage lies with Boston.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u00a9 David Butler II-Imagn Images<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The\u00a0Cleveland Cavaliers might have held onto the East’s top seed\u00a0throughout the season, but the\u00a0Boston Celtics\u00a0are widely considered the East’s best team and the league’s top-tier team. That’s no disrespect to the\u00a0Oklahoma City Thunder, who have essentially rampaged through the league since day one. Boston is simply a complete team all around. If the Thunder were […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5081,"featured_media":131156,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[5,1608,62],"tags":[900,450,798,138,1489],"class_list":["post-131155","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-celtics","category-basketball","category-nba","tag-donovan-mitchell","tag-jaylen-brown","tag-jayson-tatum","tag-kristaps-porzingis","tag-shai-gilgeous-alexander"],"modified_by":"Aaron J Zacharias","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/131155","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5081"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=131155"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/131155\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":131158,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/131155\/revisions\/131158"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/131156"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=131155"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=131155"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=131155"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}