Kristaps Porzingis on Jaylen Brown: ‘he’s an animal’

With Jayson Tatum and Jrue Holiday, the Finals MVP was the driving force behind beating the physical Pistons.

At Media Day, Jaylen Brown infamously said, “a night we playing — don’t mean to disrespect them, but the Detroit Pistons who have struggled over the last year or two — we going to play through Payton [Pritchard], let him go for 30. Play through Sam [Hauser], let him shoot 10 threes tonight. We going to still win the game.”

Well, those Detroit Pistons were in town Wednesday night. Hauser started and hit 5-of-10 from behind the arc. Pritchard came off the bench for 19. But with no Jayson Tatum and Jrue Holiday, it was Brown that had a near triple-double with 28 points, six rebounds, and nine assists in a 130-120 win at TD Garden.

Coming off a Finals MVP run, the 28-year-old has started the 2024-2025 campaign in a bit of an offensive slump. He’s at the lowest efficiency of his career as he deals with a hip injury that’s bogged him down since the start of the year, but he’s a become more of a playmaker, averaging more assists (4.6) than he’s ever had. His nine helpers against the Pistons were just two shy of his career-high.

“It’s been fun to watch him grow over the last few tears in his reads. Watching him, you see him be able to process the game in real time, see the adjustments being made on him, recognizing the matchup, recognizing the space,” head coach Joe Mazzulla said after the game.

Brown is not a traditional playmaker that can razzle dazzle with his dribble — even though that’s demonstrably been a huge improvement from the summer — or make no look, crosscourt passes. Instead, he’s a heat-seeking missile searching for a target. He’s strong enough and quick enough to get anywhere on the floor and as soon as he gets from A to B, he immediately starts scanning the defense.

“I think he’s gotten better at ‘get what you want, dictate the defense.’ He plays at a pace where he can get to the spacing he wants. He knows the shot that he wants,” Mazzulla continued. “He works at it every day and it’s fun watching him just continue to grow in the game and understand it in real time and get better at it.”

Even the athlete that Royal Ivey is, he can’t stay in front of Brown to prevent him from going downhill. And here’s where Brown has absolutely upped his game. He recognizes that he’s drawn the attention of all five Detroit defenders. The easiest pass would be to Kristaps Porzingis at the middle of the floor. Instead, as soon as he sees Tobias Harris turn his head, Brown kicks it to Al Horford in the corner and a higher percentage 3.

“One, experience in the best teacher and two, maturation of the game,” Brown said of his evolution as an offensive hub. “Earlier in my career, a lot of the things people could say…I’ve been able to approve in. I feel like if I got put in that position, that I could show—it’s just different. I’m 28. I’m coming off a great season last year. I pride myself in making those plays over and over, but on our team, it’s whatever our team needs.”

Brown has prided himself on giving to the game what his team needs. His domination against Dallas wasn’t just his scoring. He took the lion’s share of defending Luka Doncic and averaged five assists a game in the Finals en route to the MVP.

“He does a good job of trying to read the team, who needs to get a touch, who needs to get it going. He’s good at that. If he needs to take more responsibility and attack and create more, he does that for us. We already know what he gives us defensively, his physicality,” Porzingis said after Brown found him on another Cookies & Cream alley-oop. “When he’s engaged like this, he’s one of the best players in the league in my opinion. What we love about him is that he’s going to make the right play and he’s going to give the team what the team needs in that moment.”

Brown said that he’s still looking for the balance between finding shooters and getting strong looks around the rim. To close the first quarter, he again collapsed the defense when he got two feet in the paint and planted. Finding Horford or Derrick White in the corners would have been the right rim read. Dumping it down to Luke Kornet in the dunker spot would have been another option.

Instead, Brown detonated on Isaiah Stewart with a two-hand dunk. Mazzulla deadpanned after the game that that was the right read. Brown motioned a throat slash as The Garden faithful exploded. “Just caught up in the moment, I guess,” he said, expecting a call from the league.

JB, we’ll pay the fine.