CelticsBlog Participant of the Week #20 and #21: Jaylen Brown

We have now two weeks to cowl this time round on CelticsWeblog’s Participant of the Week, they usually couldn’t look extra totally different from each other. The primary week noticed the Celtics sandwich respectable wins over Minnesota and Portland with a pair of disappointing losses towards groups exterior of the playoff race, a pair of winnable video games towards Houston and Utah.

The second, although, seemed rather more like we anticipate from a group of this caliber. Three video games, three wins, three blowouts — all by 23 factors or extra. They kicked off the week by totally dealing with the third-seeded Sacramento on their residence courtroom, earlier than returning to the TD Backyard to maintain enterprise — the later of whom they obliterated by 44 factors. That’s extra prefer it!

We had one clear fixed between the 2 weeks, however first, let’s talk about some runners-up.

Honorable Mentions:

Luke Kornet alert! The tallest Celtic had a few efficient outings to shut out the primary week of our pattern, scoring 11 factors towards the Blazers and posting a statline of 8-7-3 towards the Jazz. He supplied a pleasant little surge of power whereas the lineup lacked Robert Williams III, who returned towards the Kings on Tuesday and contributed properly on restricted minutes in every sport since.

Derrick White’s outstanding season has continued, and he very almost claimed the {hardware} himself within the second week of our pattern on the power of a 20-5-8 stat line. The top of the season is approaching and as we contemplate choices for our Participant of the 12 months, his case continues to strengthen.

That stated, each of those weeks had a moderately simple reply in the long run.

Picture by Maddie Malhotra/Getty Pictures

CelticsBlog Participant of the Week #20 and #21: Jaylen Brown

7 GP, 35.9 MPG, 32.1 PTS (55% FG, 43% 3PT), 7.1 REB, 3.6 AST, +66

To listen to the NBA inform it, Brown wasn’t simply the very best Celtic final week — he was the very best participant within the Jap Convention. Brown took residence his third NBA Participant of the Week award for his play towards Sacramento, Indiana and San Antonio.

Brown has been good all season, however in March, he’s additionally lastly been wholesome. He’s been a daily within the lineup basically for the primary time since 2023 started. He shuffled out and in of the lineup for a lot of January and February, earlier than an inadvertent elbow from Tatum shut him down till the All-Star sport — which earned the protecting masks he’s sporting now.

Having the ability to keep on the courtroom constantly has helped Brown present his high quality. He’s been probably the most constant offensive engine on the group, particularly with Tatum struggling to keep away from the dreaded “tour date” capturing strains, (with 4-of-12 and 4-of-16 performances to his title within the first week of our pattern). For the reason that All-Star break, he’s scored at the least 24 factors in 13 of his final 15 video games, cracking 30 in six and 40 twice. With scoring numbers inflated league-wide, it’s simple to miss simply how worthwhile that sort of dependable offensive manufacturing may be.

There are optimistic indicators galore in Brown’s latest play. For starters, his three-point shot has quietly had a pleasant little resurgence. After capturing simply 33% from deep throughout the primary 4 months of the season, he’s related on 38% of his threes for the reason that begin of February, a span of 18 video games. By nature of their roles and the defensive consideration they obtain, each he and Tatum are going to wrestle to publish three-point percentages that mirror their precise expertise as shooters — it’s laborious to be Steph Curry or Dame Lillard, in any case — however they’re each higher than the low-30s, and the optimistic regression for Brown has been a welcome improvement.

Then there’s the large ache level in Brown’s sport: the playmaking. We’ve already lined Brown’s progress as a passer right here at CelticsBlog, however suffice to say, his processing and decision-making has very a lot appeared to enhance in latest weeks. He’s by no means going to be a major initiator sort from the wing in the identical vein that the Celtics deploy Tatum, however elevated ranges of consciousness and confidence are a welcome improvement. A group can by no means have sufficient secondary creators, particularly one with championship hopes.

The San Antonio win didn’t essentially come towards the hardest competitors, but it surely nonetheless served as a pleasant little capstone for 2 weeks of nice basketball from Brown. He scored 41 factors on 18-of-29 capturing, grabbed 13 rebounds and dished three assists — his second 40-point sport in two weeks, and third of the season. He was on the Spurs from the leap, scoring 15 factors within the first quarter on an evening the place the Celtics lacked scoring juice in Tatum’s absence.

Simply two weeks stay within the NBA season, which implies simply two extra Participant of the Week awards lie forward of us. For our penultimate award, we’re a three-game pattern: Tuesday’s RESULT on the Wizards, Thursday’s heavyweight bout towards the Bucks and Friday’s revenge sport towards the Jazz. We’ll be again subsequent week to debate our next-to-last Participant of the Week.