Jaylen Brown found a rhythm and the rest was history: “You’re just in tune with everything”

The beginning of Jaylen Brown’s last two Celtics games could not have been more different.

On Christmas Day against Philadelphia, the three-time All-Star began the night on 1-8 shooting with 4 turnovers. Two days later, against the Pacers, Brown made his first 9 field goals en route to a 44-point explosion — the third-highest scoring outing of his career.

After the win, Brown said his confidence never wavered despite the Celtics’ two-game skid.

“I wasn’t concerned at all,” Brown said. “That’s just the grind of a season. It’s a new year. You can’t expect everything to just go perfect.”

There’s a steadiness about Jaylen Brown that stands out after losses this season. Maybe it’s the new hardware on his shelf between the Eastern Conference Finals MVP and Finals MVP trophy, he’s been affirmed with the highest individual honors in basketball. Maybe it’s the elusive Banner 18 finally hanging in the rafters.

Maybe it’s the calming influence of Joe Mazzulla, who made sure to note that the Celtics’ 142-105 victory over the Pacers was effectively meaningless.

“This doesn’t really matter, just as much as last game’s loss doesn’t matter,” Mazzulla deadpanned after the win.

Brown hasn’t had the smoothest beginning to the 2024-25 season — he’s shooting 44.4% from the field and 32.2% from three, both career lows. He’s dealt with a hip strain that kept him out of five games and limited him in a few more. Last week, his mother’s home was burglarized, and the lack of privacy that followed emotionally impacted him.

“It made us think about and evaluate things a little bit differently,” Brown said. “We didn’t love how the media approached the situation — we had drones flying over our house, people knocking on our door, it was a lot.”

And, while the Celtics still have the third-best record in the NBA at 23-8, they’ve struggled a bit as of late, dropping three of four games heading into Friday.

With Boston looking to right the ship, Brown took control, scoring 15 points in a five-minute span in the first quarter. That run was punctuated by a steal and dunk that electrified TD Garden.

“He was big time,” Mazzulla said. “He has the ability to impact a team, an arena with his energy and his physicality. And when he gets into a certain zone, he just gets locked in… I thought he was a catalyst to what we were doing on both ends of the floor.”

All at once, everything seemed to click. Brown shot 16-24 from the field, 6-11 from three, and 6-6 from the line. He grabbed 3 offensive rebounds and amassed 4 steals — more than the Celtics had as a team on Wednesday. He relentlessly hounded Tyrese Haliburton.

It was the type of performance that fans of the sport are blessed with every once in a while — when a superstar player elevates to another gear that seems almost other-worldly.

“It’s just a rhythm,” Brown said, searching for the words to describe what that type of zone feels like. “You’re just in tune with everything. You’re just connected to the fans. You’re just connected to the game. Everything is just kind of flowing, all in the same direction.”

“You just got to do your best to stay in that — little stuff can take you out of it, arguing to the refs, paying attention to other stuff, whatever,” he said. “You just have to do your best to stay in that rhythm.”

Mazzulla made sure to highlight that Brown’s impact on the ball game extended far beyond just his shotmaking.

“He just gets into his zone where he’s just laser-focused on his ability to get to a spot, impact a matchup defensively, make plays on the defensive end, get the ball where he needs it to get on offense,” said the third-year head coach.

Brown has long expressed he takes particular pride on the defensive end.

“I don’t think my defense, people pay enough attention to it,” Brown said. “I feel like I’m one of the best two-way players in the world. So, I try to hang my hat on that side. That takes a lot of energy, and then to have to go back down and try to score 24, 25 a night and get our guys going — defense is where our team needs to set the tone. Physicality. Toughness. I feel like I’m the leader of that.”

Payton Pritchard, who recorded a near triple-double off the bench with 18 points, 10 assists, and 8 rebounds, sat next to Brown postgame and made his All-Defense case.

“He should definitely be in the All-Defense category, because we give him the hardest assignments,” Pritchard said, noting how unusual it is for a wing to be tasked with hounding point guards. “It’s an exhausting thing. He’s creating havoc and making things tough every night.”

It’ll take a lot more performances like Friday’s — games where Brown is seemingly floating, where it’s only the ball, the basket, and the crowd, where the guard he is matched up against wishes he were anyone else.

But, Brown’s massive bounce-back performance was a perfect start — and a reminder of the beautiful basketball Brown plays when everything is clicking.