LOS ANGELES — Jaylen Brown broke into a toothy grin as he chest-bumped Payton Pritchard at the center of Crypto.com arena, moments after Pritchard crossed up Austin Reaves en route to his sixth three-pointer of the night.
Brown, Pritchard’s longest-tenured teammate, relished the offensive explosion.
“Payton has been playing at an All-Star level,” Brown said after the Celtics 111-89 win over the Los Angeles Lakers. “And I’m happy to see it. Nobody happier to see it than me.”
Pritchard’s three-pointer
extended the Celtics’ lead to 22 points, their 37th win of the season all but secured. And, a team that was once heralded by many as destined for the lottery extended their lead for second place in the Eastern Conference.
On the sidelines, Jayson Tatum chuckled, in awe of Pritchard’s masterful offensive display (the Celtics guard finished the afternoon with 30 points on 10-14 shooting).
But afterwards, in quintessential fashion, Pritchard said he wasn’t a finished product.
“[There’s] another step I can get to,” Pritchard said. “So, just gonna keep working — and I’m gonna get to it.”
In one sense, Payton Pritchard was the story of the Celtics’ blowout win over the Lakers — the 27-year-old has been on a tear as of late, averaging 23.6 points and shooting 54.4% from the field in his last 7 games (since Anfernee Simons was traded to the Chicago Bulls).
Payton Pritchard, the NBA’s most efficient isolation scorer this season, overcame an ice-cold start to the year to average 17.6 points and 5.4 assists per game, both career-highs.
But, was Pritchard the story of the Celtics’ Sunday afternoon victory? Is he the story of the Celtics’ season?
Jaylen Brown, of course, deserves plenty of the limelight
In the victory, Brown talled 32 points, 8 rebounds, and 7 assists, putting forth another all-around performance that earned praise from LeBron James himself.
“This whole MVP thing, I don’t understand why his name is not getting talked about some as well,” James said, per CLNS Media. “Like, nobody gave them a shot to start the season. And he’s averaging what, 30 [points]? Just under 30? It’s a popularity contest sometimes, I tell you.”
Brown has received his fair share of accolades this season; in January, he earned his first-ever Eastern Conference Player of the Month selection. Last week, he started in an All-Star game for the first time in his NBA tenure. And, before the game, Lakers head coach JJ Redick stated simply that there were no holes in Brown’s game.
Is Brown’s leap the story of the Celtics’ season?
There’s a strong case to be made. Jaylen Brown has played some of the best basketball of his career, averaging 29.2 points, 7 rebounds, and 4.9 assists — all career-highs.
It’s unusual for a player in their 10th season to make such a substantial lap — Brown is scoring 7 more points per game than he did last year — and it’s the first time in his career he’s been in MVP conversations.
“I feel like I’m the best two-way player in the world,” Brown said. “I play both ends on the court night-to-night. I’m available, which is hard to do. I’m a leader. Help lead my team, empower my team to come out and play confidently, stuff that doesn’t always show up on the analytics. And I’m a winner. I come out and try to win every single night.”
In some ways, Celtics-Lakers was all about the young bucks
It’s hard to boil down the Celtics’ success to the elite play of one player, when all season long has so loudly been about the team. Contributions have come from different players every night — for a stretch, it was Josh Minott starting games for Boston (Minott is no longer on the team).
For a couple-month period, Jordan Walsh, who started 20 consecutive games, was the talk of the town. For a stretch, it was Hugo Gonzalez, who began to break through at just 19 years old.
A hallmark characteristic of this group has been that regardless of who is available, the same attention to detail is on full display.
Nowadays, Sam Hauser and Baylor Scheierman regularly start games for Boston, with Pritchard and Nikola Vucevic coming off the bench.
There were turning points in Sunday’s beatdown that felt like the Celtics’ success could largely be attributed to the team’s trio of young defenders: Baylor Scheierman, Hugo Gonzalez, and Jordan Walsh.
Mazzulla said that Brown pulled all three aside — as well as Sam Hauser — at Saturday’s practice in Santa Monica in order to go over some of the Lakers’ stars offensive tendencies. That extra scout carried over into Sunday’s game; James, Austin Reaves, and Luka Doncic combined to shoot just 22 of 53 (41%) from the field.
And, Brown liked what he saw from that trio in action on Sunday afternoon.
“Hugo made some big plays for us,” Brown said. “Baylor was amazing tonight. Defense is what we’ve got to continue to elevate.”
The Celtics, in turn, tallied their third consecutive victor.
They now have the NBA’s fourth-best record (trailing only the Detroit Pistons, Oklahoma City Thunder, and San Antonio Spurs) and third-best net rating (trailing only the Pistons and Thunder).
After the win, Mazzulla was asked what he thought was the story of the Celtics’ season.
His answer perfectly reflected the Celtics’ mindset: focus on the right now, on the controllables. Focus on the process, not the result.
“The story’s not done,” Mazzulla said. “We are only a product of what we do tomorrow, what we do the next day, and that’s just the story. If we would have lost this game by 1, tomorrow’s film session [would have] to be as detailed and as disciplined as it is going to be with the result that we had. And so that’s the story. It’s not done yet.”
Mazzulla doesn’t expect Monday’s Celtics film session to feel any different on the heels of a victory as it would feel after a loss. After the 22-point win, he noted the Celtics gave up two back-cuts and an after-timeout lob to LeBron. He also noted that the Celtics overhelped on several three-point attempts.
All of those plays — win or loss — is what the group will focus on tomorrow.
“We haven’t done anything,” Mazzulla said. “All we’ve done is stick to the process of winning on both ends of the floor, put our head down. [We] don’t overreact to a good win or to a bad loss. And, [we] get better in the next game.”
