always expected Tatum to return<\/a> at some point this season, so Brown and head coach Joe Mazzulla have had months to prepare for how the team would operate once it returned to full strength. In the weeks before his co-star\u2019s comeback, Brown ramped up his activity as a facilitator. He\u2019s averaging more than two more assists per game since the NBA All-Star break (7.1) than he did pre-All-Star (4.7), and his potential assists have spiked, too (8.8 to 11.2).<\/p>\nOn Monday, in Boston\u2019s first clutch game (within five points in the final five minutes) with Tatum this season, it was Brown who took control late. He scored all but one of the Celtics\u2019 field goals in the final 8 1\/2 minutes, and set up the lone outlier by stealing the ball from Devin Booker and feeding Tatum for a fast-break layup with 3:05 remaining.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt felt like old times,\u201d Tatum said of that play, which sparked a 12-1 Celtics run to close the game.<\/p>\n
![\"Boston,](\"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/lticsnl12.jpg\")
Boston, MA – Boston Celtics forward Jayson Tatum (0) puts up the ball defended by Phoenix Suns guard Jordan Goodwin (23) and forward Rasheer Fleming (20)during the third quarter of the game at TD Garden. (Nancy Lane\/Boston Herald)<\/p>\n
Tatum, after playing the entire third quarter and tallying nine points and four rebounds, returned for the final six minutes and attempted just two shots. He finished with 21-7-5 and was a team-best plus-11 over his 32 minutes.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve been able to be in a role where I\u2019ll be able to kind of control things, and everybody\u2019s kind of playing off me,\u201d said Brown, who had six assists, seven rebounds and a career-high 19 made free throws in the win. \u201cI\u2019ve been in those roles seldom over the years, but this year, for an extended amount of time, I\u2019ve been able to be in that position. Honestly, I feel like I still have a lot of room to grow. I feel like even now, over the last couple of games, I\u2019ve adjusted my game, and I\u2019m still continuing to get better. I think my playmaking ability, seeing the floor, taking my time, all of that stuff is still continuing to improve. But honestly, it\u2019s my first opportunity in my career where I\u2019ve been able to do this for an extended period of time.<\/p>\n
\u201cObviously, regardless, people are going to have their critiques and their criticism, but it\u2019s just a completely different flow when people play off of you or when you play off others. It\u2019s two completely different things. I know from people watching the game, you just think you roll the ball out and everything\u2019s supposed to work. Great players are all supposed to fit together. But it doesn\u2019t always work like that. Sometimes you\u2019ve got to take a back seat, or sometimes you\u2019ve got to play more off-ball, so everything shifts. But this year, I\u2019ve been able to kind of play at my own pace. I\u2019ve been able to control my own destiny.\u201d<\/p>\n
This season has validated Brown\u2019s long-held belief that he could succeed as a No. 1 option if given the chance. He was an All-Star starter, should be an All-NBA honoree and could finish top-five in NBA MVP voting, all while spearheading a Celtics team that not only survived, but thrived over the 62 games it played without Tatum.<\/p>\n
With 14 games remaining, the 45-23 C\u2019s sit second in the Eastern Conference and are the betting favorite to reach the NBA Finals<\/a>.<\/p>\n\u201cI\u2019ve always felt like I could be one of the top players in the world, given the opportunity, and I feel like I got to display that this season,\u201d Brown said. \u201cSo now the focus is just get ready for the playoffs. It\u2019s kind of my mentality now. Stay healthy. But, you know, I\u2019ve had a great year. I\u2019m extremely grateful. Grateful to my teammates, and it\u2019s been fun.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"After being serenaded with \u201cMVP\u201d chants during a dominant 41-point outing at TD Garden, Jaylen Brown spoke candidly…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":663346,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3791],"tags":[7,75,46,81944,78,15929,60214,77,83691,6,2065,472,4045,604],"class_list":["post-663345","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-phoenix-suns","tag-basketball","tag-boston-celtics","tag-celtics","tag-celtics-suns","tag-jaylen-brown","tag-jaylen-brown-celtics","tag-jaylen-brown-stats","tag-jayson-tatum","tag-jayson-tatum-stats","tag-nba","tag-phoenix","tag-phoenix-suns","tag-phoenixsuns","tag-suns"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/116245841432325441","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/663345","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=663345"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/663345\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/663346"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=663345"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=663345"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=663345"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}