Jaylen Brown led the Boston Celtics to a perfect record last week as the team started ramping up for the stretch run of regular season. Since the All-Star break, Masked Jaylen Brown has been on an insane tear, culminating in his first POTW win of the season. JB is the third Celtic to earn the award this season after Jayson Tatum earned it twice and Derrick White earned the honors as well.
New Orleans Pelicans forward Brandon Ingram and Boston Celtics guard-forward Jaylen Brown have been named the NBA Western and Eastern Conference Players of the Week, respectively, for Week 23 of the 2022-23 season (March 20-26). pic.twitter.com/oo8yyK46ib
— NBA Communications (@NBAPR) March 27, 2023
Jaylen Brown averaged 31.7 points and 8.3 rebounds on 55.9% shooting from the field. Scoring isn’t the only thing that’s made a leap; this month he’s averaging 4.2 assists compared to his season average of 3.4 assists. Brown is playing like a complete package, and based on his comments last night following the win against the San Antonio Spurs, he’s enjoyed being the dependable rock that the team goes to more often.
Speaking of last night, Brown’s 41-point, 13-rebound, 3-assist and 1-steal performance against the Spurs was the icing on the cake for an excellent week for the forward (who likely hopes to be classified as a forward when All-NBA voting comes around). On Friday against the Indiana Pacers, Jaylen Brown poured in 27 points, 7 rebounds and 4 assists. Tuesday’s victory against the Sacramento Kings saw Brown put up another 27 points, 5 rebounds and 4 assists.
All of these wins came by a margin of at least 23 points, the best such stretch for the Celtics in several decades. Obviously, gestures wildly at the competition, the Celtics weren’t demolishing the most accomplished playoff opponents, but anytime you can get your team humming like this with seven games left in the season, that’s what you want.
Brandon Ingram won the award for the Western Conference, pulling the Pelicans right back into the playoff picture (surprisingly the seventh seed currently). It definitely helped that the Dallas Mavericks suddenly imploded mid-season after trading for a former Celtics All-Star point guard (wait, where have I seen this before?), but Ingram’s 31.3 points, 10.0 assists and 6.3 rebounds certainly helped.
The Celtics next take on the Washington Wizards tomorrow night.
