Reddit ken_riffy user stated: Jae Crowder has been a monster on defense

[Monkhouse]

Everyone remembers this, right?

If you missed it: on January 3rd, the Celtics hosted the Jazz. Gordon Hayward, an upcoming FA, apparently garnered some cheers from diplomatic Bostonians in an attempt to earn his favor. That p---ed Jae Crowder off, who plays the same position. He tweeted about it. It made some waves in the press afterwards.

Whether or not Jae's reaction was warranted, mature, whatever, doesn't really matter here. It's for the birds.

HOWEVER.

Upon looking into Crowder's stats, it appears that this incident did exactly what he'd said it did:

    “I heard the cheering before the game. I didn’t like that at all,” he said. “I think that was a sign of disrespect to me from the fans. That sparked a little fire in me.”

Take a look at his defensive numbers:

    Before those cheers

    After those cheers

There is a marked difference. Before those Hayward cheers tormented him more than Lisa's dental plan, it's safe to say that his numbers were mediocre. But afterwards, they are absurd. Players are shooting 21.2% on threes (15% below average) and 45.8% within 10 feet (11.6% below average) when guarded by Crowder, highlighting the fact that the "little fire" sparked on that January night is currently burning field goal percentages to the ground.

To put this into context: for players that defend at least 10 FGA per game, Joel Embiid is leading the league with a -6.5 FG% differential. Since January 1st, Jae is sporting a -8.4 FG% differential. Coincidentally, we're 16-5 (62 win pace) in that timeframe.

A p---ed off Jae Crowder is a VERY good basketball player.

Unfortunately. I'm at work, so pulling up statistics is tough for me. But can anyone confirm this?

https://www.reddit.com/r/bostonceltics/comments/5tze1p/did_the_gordon_hayward_incident_turn_jae_crowder/