Jason Kidd Has Resorted To Trying Mental Warfare After Calling Jaylen Brown The Celtics Best Player

Nathaniel S. Butler. Getty Images.

Jaylen Brown was an absolute two-way monster in Game 1 of the NBA Finals. He once again proved that the Mavs simply do not have the perimeter defense on this roster to consistently stop him from getting whatever he wants, and then on the defensive end, he once again showed the world why it was one of the biggest injustices in recent NBA history leaving him off any All NBA Defense team.

When it comes to limiting the Jays, the Mavs don't really have a lot of counters/moves left to try. At this point, the roster is the roster. So what's the only play left? Mental warfare. Anybody with a brain can tell what Jason Kidd is trying to do here, because we've been dealing with this for the last 7+ years. When you can't beat the Celtics, you go to the Jaylen vs Tatum move. You try and pit them against each other and create drama that doesn't exist. It's the oldest play in the book that we've seen at every stage of this Tatum/Brown era.

There's only one problem with Kidd's approach here.

We don't give a fuck. Jayson Tatum doesn't give a fuck. Jaylen Brown doesn't give a fuck. 

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You know what everyone on the Boston side cares about? Winning the title. That's it. 

Just look at how the discourse has been when it comes to Tatum's Game 1 performance that came….in a win. He's being killed for it. This type of approach is par for the course when it comes to this player and this team, and every time it comes up people fail to realize the whole point of the Celtics roster.

The Celtics are who they are because they have them both.

To me, this quote from Kidd tells me he knows there's nothing schematically he can do to limit these two players. This is the last gun in his bullet so to speak. It's not all that different from what we saw with Kyrie when he couldn't help himself from trying to bait the crowd in his postgame presser. That's the Mavs strategy and it reeks of desperation.

And you know what? It's also probably not smart to poke the bear. Despite what NBA Twitter wants you to believe, Jayson Tatum is fully capable of destroying you in a playoff game. Sometimes that means a 35/10/5, sometimes that means a game like last night where he controls both ends but only finishes with 16. So whatever Kidd thinks he's accomplishing here, this isn't going to bait Jayson Tatum into playing losing basketball. If anything, we're about to get the best Tatum performance to date. If there's one thing he has consistently done in the playoffs, it's respond with big-time performances when people play around with his name.

Kidd basically went to the podium and parrotted whatever narrative NBA Twitter/Mavs Twitter has been saying about Tatum for weeks now. That's very embarrassing. We all have eyes. We all know who the Celtics' best player is. Maybe it's the guy who has made 3 straight All NBA 1st Teams, but what do I know? I'm just happy he said it. Instead of focusing on a gameplan, Kidd is more worried about trying to get into the Celtics head by suggesting one of their really good players is better than their other really good player. What a strategy!

If fact, I am praying Kidd adjusts his defense to stop Jaylen which opens up things for Tatum. Please Jason, do it. Take your own advice! Sell out to stop Jaylen Brown, that's the way!

Just get me to Game 2 already. This wait is killing me.