BOSTON — While putting on his shoes late Wednesday night, Payton Pritchard turned to Jaylen Brown at a nearby locker.
“You were diming tonight,” Pritchard said. “You threw some unbelievable passes.”
As the two Boston Celtics teammates discussed their 130-120 win against the Detroit Pistons, Pritchard recalled one of Brown’s most difficult passes of the night. Three minutes into the third quarter, the All-Star delivered a high-level assist to Al Horford for a corner 3-pointer. After drawing a second defender with a drive to the paint, Brown pivoted away from the defensive pressure, faked a pass to Sam Hauser on the right wing and fired a sidearm bullet to Horford for a swish.
Only a player with awareness of the entire chess board could have thrown the pass. After pulling Horford’s initial defender away from Horford, Brown still needed to deceive Tobias Harris on the weak side of the court to free his teammate for a shot. Brown used a ball fake, which sent Harris jumping toward Hauser, to finish pulling the strings on the Detroit defense.
On that possession, the Pistons moved where Brown wanted them to move. He hasn’t always been known for his playmaking, but his commitment to developing that part of his game has paid off.
“It’s been fun to watch him grow over the last few years in his reads,” said coach Joe Mazzulla. “You can watch him and see that he’s processing the game in real-time and see the adjustments that are being made on him and recognizing the matchup, recognizing the spacing. I think he’s gotten better. There were a couple times that I was like ‘Get what you want.’ He dictates the defense, and he plays at a pace to where he can get to the spacing that he wants, he knows the shots that he wants. So he works at it every day and it’s fun watching him just continue to grow in the game and understand it in real time and get better. And it’s fun talking to him during the game about it too.”
Brown is on pace to set a career high in assists with 4.6 per game. He doesn’t always receive the opportunity to show off his improvements on a Celtics roster loaded with gifted creators, but his enhanced ability to run the show has been apparent whenever the team asks him to handle the ball more. With Jayson Tatum missing his first game of the season Wednesday and Jrue Holiday also sidelined, the Celtics called for Brown to initiate the offense for much of their win against Detroit.
“(His passing) was unbelievable,” Pritchard said. “I think he did a great job tonight. When he had one-on-one, he took advantage of it. But when two people got on the ball, he made the right read. He was probably in the 20s with potential assists. He easily could have had a double-double there. It just shows his growth. He makes the game easy for himself.”
People haven’t always said that about Brown.
“When you play as long as he has, you start to add different things to your arsenal,” Pritchard said. “And it’s not just scoring. It’s making certain passes. We watch a lot of film, so he sees when to attack and when to use his teammates. Obviously, we have a lot of great teammates, so he makes the game easy. He’s throwing lobs to (Kristaps Porziņģis) and easy assists to set up threes.”
Brown’s growth as a facilitator has been most evident without Tatum next to him on the court. Over the Celtics’ 162 minutes in such situations entering Wednesday night, Brown had recorded 11.7 assists per 100 possessions without Tatum on the court (Trae Young leads the league with 15.8 assists per 100 possessions) compared to just 3.7 assists per 100 possessions with Tatum in the lineup, according to pbpstats.com.
The reasons for the significant discrepancy aren’t difficult to comprehend. When Tatum is in the game, the Celtics often run their offense through him. That leaves Brown in a secondary role. He still thrives in it, but it doesn’t always show off his ability to create for others. Once prone to reckless drives and tunnel vision, he has worked diligently over the years to become more trustworthy with the ball in his hands.
“I just think, one, experience is the best teacher,” Brown said. “And just maturity, maturation of the game. Earlier in my career, a lot of the things that people could say, I’ve been able to improve. I feel like if I got put in that position, I could show that it’s just different. I’m 28. I’m coming off a great season last year. I promise I’ll be able to make those plays over and over again. But whatever our team needs. I think that’s the most important thing. Defensively, pick a guy up full-court, guard the best player. Play off-ball, play on-ball, be a cutter, guard a big — just having that versatility I think adds to our team and our value. I promise I’ll do that as well. But if you put me in that position, I think you’ll be able to see that there’s definitely growth.”
Brown has shown it when given the opportunity. Lately, those chances have consistently led to team success. Entering Wednesday, the Celtics had a net rating of plus-7.9 points per 100 possessions with Brown on the court and Tatum off it. That has come over a small sample size, but the numbers were similar over 929 minutes last season. The Celtics haven’t always been able to thrive in such situations but turned the corner last season when Brown became more of a facilitator. This season, their offense hasn’t slowed down at all with him on the court and Tatum off it.
Brown’s talented teammates, like Pritchard and Derrick White, help keep the buckets flowing during those stretches. But Brown’s responsibilities might change the most during those minutes. It’s only natural for him to take on more of the creation in certain lineups. He was asked if Tatum’s absence contributed to his emphasis on playmaking Wednesday.
“Yeah, you could say that,” Brown said. “I think it’s also just a credit to my development. I’ve improved on things. A lot of my weaknesses in the past I’ve attacked. So being able to run a team and an offense is something that I look forward to in those moments. Obviously, on our team, you won’t see it as much because we’ve got a lot of guys that are ball-dominant and that are really good players. But in these moments, you gotta step up and make plays. (Against Detroit), I was just trying to get my teammates involved, especially in the second half. I didn’t think we shot it as well in the second half, but we got a plethora of good looks.”
Brown set up many of them. Eight of his assists led to 3-pointers or dunks. He opened the scoring for Boston with an alley-oop to Porziņģis.
Cookies & Cream back at it 🍪🥛 pic.twitter.com/0IYcEsa3sW
— Boston Celtics (@celtics) December 5, 2024
Later in the first half, Brown threw a nifty lookaway lefty pass to Horford for a corner 3.
Running the offense throughout most of the first half, Brown dominated with 23 points and five assists before halftime. For all the passing he did, his most memorable play came when he dunked on Pistons big man Isaiah Stewart. Capping off a mighty 16-point first quarter, Brown hung on the rim for an extra beat before unleashing an aggressive celebration of the high-powered slam. While staring at Stewart, Brown dragged his right hand across his neck in a slashing-the-throat gesture.
“Just caught up in the moment, I guess,” Brown said.
Though he expected to hear from the league about the gesture, Brown didn’t sound too apologetic about sending that type of message to the Pistons enforcer. After the dunk, Stewart pushed Brown hard enough to force him off the court. Brown suggested that was a typical play for Stewart.
“I feel like he’s always doing stuff like that,” Brown said. “I think that is how he plays the game. But my focus is on coming out, running the offense, getting our team into the right positions. So I didn’t want to get distracted. But definitely some going back and forth (with Stewart). And we’re not tolerating that this year from nobody.”
Brown’s athleticism and edge aren’t new. It’s his ability to read a game that has evolved the most.
“I think he does a good job of trying to read the team: who needs to get a touch, who we need to get going,” Porziņģis said. “He’s good at that. If he needs to take more responsibility and attack more and create more, he does that for us. We already know what he gives us defensively, his physicality. When he’s engaged like this he’s one of the best players in the league in my opinion. But yeah, what we love about him, he’s going to make the right play and he’s going to give the team what the team needs in that moment.”
(Photo of Jaylen Brown being fouled by Cade Cunningham: Winslow Townson / Getty Images)
