Plenty of love for Celtics in NBA.com’s Top 10 plays

Who says the slate of NBA preseason games offers no excitement? The Celtics defeated the Brooklyn Nets, 100-97, Thursday night in Brooklyn. In doing so, Marcus Smart and Jaylen Brown caught the eye of curators from the NBA.com’s Top 10 plays of the night.

Smart makes his first appearance on the nightly list at the number seven spot. Handling the ball at the top of the key, Smart uses an Al Horford pick to drive to the hoop. He evaded Nets center Brook Lopez at the baseline with a nifty up-and-under left-handed lay-in for the basket. (Video via MassLive.com’s Jay King.)

Coming in at number six was Smart again—this time setting up a wide open alley-oop for the third overall pick, Brown. After grabbing a long offensive rebound beyond the arc on the left side, Smart patiently waits for a streaking Brown coming off a down screen on the right side. The offensive rebound stretched the Nets defense out to the three-point line, leaving no one to protect the basket from Brown’s throwdown.

Brown and 12th-man hopeful Jordan Mickey linked up for the third-best play of the night. Mickey grabbed a long rebound late in the fourth quarter and started the fast break with a pass to guard Terry Rozier, who pushed the ball up to a leading Brown. Dribbling with his left as a Nets defender stuck to his right hip, Brown rewards a trailing Mickey with a behind-the-back pass setting up a right-handed slam.