“He’ll pump fake and pump fake and pump fake until he gets you off his feet. I’m thinking like, ‘He’s gotta be shooting one of these motha (expletive).’”

Jaylen Brown knows guarding DeMar DeRozan is easier said than done. But it still needs to be done.

Sunday’s win, and the entire winning streak that has shocked the league, came down to one final moment. It was a chance at redemption for Brown, who had been pump faked into two fouls on DeRozan a quarter ago.

Toronto’s offense in crunch time had devolved into DeMar DeRozan versus the world and the world sent forth Al Horford to defend it.

Brown had to reconcile with two possesions late in the third where DeRozan pump faked Brown until his mind was erased, known in the Enlightenment Era as the tabula rasa offense. DeRozan’s Lockean approach to offense came back to bite him later, but had been working throughout the game.

Brown was playing with a desperation to catch up to DeRozan, which found him falling prey to DeRozan’s upfake traps.

That final play was the DeRozan special, a pivoting turnaround on the free throw line into a step back. Brown had him completely smothered, but in the heat of the moment, lost Brad Stevens’ rule of always being the second jumper when contesting the shot. DeRozan dug into Brown to get him leaning forward and off balance. When he got separation for the shot, Brown’s center of gravity had him leaning forward and made him biting almost inevitable. That sense of lost balance triggers you to be more aggressive and Brown felt in the moment that his only chance to contest the shot was to get in the air.

“He gets you to bite because he’s such a good midrange player,” Stevens said of DeRozan. “Our guys did a pretty good job of contesting there late and being the second jumper. That’s what we always talk about.”

Horford has mastered this, being long enough to contest without jumping but knowing how to keep a wide base. When DeRozan hit him with the patented step back with Toronto down one with 2:28 left, Horford contested it well. It was the only one of DeRozan’s five plays in crunch time where he actually scored.

Teams have continued to mistakenly set up a Horford switch for their perimeter scorer in crunch time this year. He has been remarkably consistent in contesting shots tightly without committing a foul. Horford may be the best big at this in the conference and could give Draymond Green a run for his money.

DeRozan set up a switch onto Smart, who fronted him perfectly and forced a DeRozan turnover on a spin move gone wrong.

“Just really stay solid on him,” Horford said when asked for the recipe to stop DeRozan. “My whole mindset was to make him take a tough, contested shot. He’s such a good player, that’s all you can hope for. Just stay disciplined.

“Coach must have said about 20 times to stay down on him, and it’s still hard because he does such a good job with that. Just making sure that I got out there and contested his shot.”

Brown heard the message loud and clear.

“Just trying to stay down, trying to have active hands, multiple team effort and luckily we pulled out the win today.”

So the whole game came down to one last change for Jaylen to get his redemption. DeRozan cleared him out and went back to the same exact move he pump faked Brown into biting on before.

Brown remembered his coach’s words and made sure he was the second jumper. He stayed balanced on the middle of his feet, didn’t lean into the contest too early and timed it just right.

Brown forced the miss, watched the loose ball run down the clock, then flexed and screamed as assistant coach Micah Shrewsberry came in for the chest bump.

“Great look. I make that in my sleep,” DeRozan said after the game. “Felt good. I thought it was going to roll in but it didn’t. All the mistakes we made in the last few minutes of the game still gave ourselves a chance to win. It sucks to lose, but we got to learn from it.”

DeRozan wanted the matchup on Brown and wound the clock all the way down, which didn’t surprise Brown.

“No I wasn’t surprised,” Brown said. “And to be honest, that’s a shot DeMar DeRozan probably hits nine times out of 10. I got a late contest, but he missed this one, so we’ll take the win.”

When Brown was told the DeRozan said the ball felt perfect coming off his hands, he took credit for making sure he stood in the way of perfection.

“Yeah, like I don’t believe he’s missing that shot if he gets another opportunity. But I did a good job of staying down and just trying to make him not know what I’m doing, make him guess. He just happened to miss.”

Boston just happens to be on a 12-game winning streak now. Brown has made plenty of mistakes throughout these games, but he is showing a knack for coming through in crunch time.

The Celtics needed him to step up to the moment more than ever this season, staring down an All-Star starter from a year ago.

Jump second. Win first.

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