Boston Celtics guard Jrue Holiday has tactical leadership on the defensive end of the court, a task he’s never really had in his career despite being a top defender in the NBA for the last handful of years.
This role requires Holiday to make instinctive decisions and it’s something that he takes with great pride, as head coach Joe Mazzulla relies on him to do at a high level for the betterment of the team.
Holiday has said multiples times this season that he’s never had this kind of responsibility on the defensive end of the court, as Mazzulla expressed during a practice in December.
“You have to be the quarterback of everything we do defensively. You have the freedom to do anything. You just have to make sure you have a reason why it was done and that it puts us in the best possession to have a great, successful possession.”
In Game 3 on Saturday in Miami, Holiday only scored three-points but was a game-high plus-minus +23. He set the tone on defense from the first play of the game and didn’t take his foot off the gas pedal on that end of the court and it made a difference for Boston.
On Sunday afternoon during practice, Holiday told the media that he knew Boston had great defenders, but he didn’t know that everyone could defend at a high level, even the white guys.
If Holiday can continue his defensive pressure, the Celtics will be in good position to win this series and make a deep playoff run.
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The Celtics Files 
One response to “Jrue Holiday praises Celtics defense, ‘even the white guys’”
[…] Holiday praised his teammates in April to the with how everybody on the team defends at a high level. He was surprised to learn that even the white guys on the team like Payton Pritchard, Sam Hauser, and Luke Kornet play defense well. […]
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