The duo perhaps weren’t the highest scorers for Boston on Wednesday night, but make no mistake, Jaylen Brown and Jayson Tatum were leading the Celtics offense.
The pair of star wings combined for 11 of 30 team assists in the Celtics’s 120-106 win over the Toronto Raptors at TD Garden and set the tone for some of the team’s best ball movement of the season.
Brown had a career-high 10 assists, while Tatum was close behind with nine. They only scored 12 and 17 points, respectively, on a bit of an off-night scoring.
But if they weren’t going to hit their shots, they now are more than capable of setting up everyone else to hit theirs.
“For the team, just seeing Jayson and Jaylen mature so much that they can impact the game whether they’re scoring or not, that to me the sign of them taking that huge leap,” Semi Ojeleye said in his postgame video press conference. “And they took everybody with them by doing that.”
Ojeleye especially benefitted from their playmaking, scoring a team-high 24 points in the victory. The same goes for rookie Payton Pritchard, who dropped 20 off the bench.
Both Ojeleye and Pritchard were 6-of-8 from 3-point range, becoming the first Celtics teammates to make six triples each in the same game.
Brown has been vocal in the past about his admiration for Ojeleye’s work ethic. After the role player’s last big game against the Orlando Magic on Jan. 15, Brown proclaimed that with more opportunity, Ojeleye would shine.
Brown and Tatum gave Ojeleye just that, but he and Pritchard weren’t the only guys the two presumed 2021 All-Stars got going Thursday.
Kemba Walker has struggled shooting since his return to the Celtics lineup after missing the beginning of the season to strengthen his knee.
Tatum has been insistent that Walker will find a rhythm, especially when his minutes restriction is lifted.
In Boston’s recent loss to the Los Angeles Lakers on Jan. 31, Walker’s shooting struggles seemed to come to a head, as he was 1-for-12 from the field in a narrow 96-95 result.
After that game and multiple times since, being the leaders that they now undoubtedly are, Brown and Tatum have taken it upon themselves to try and help Walker get out of that slump.
Even head coach Brad Stevens has said countless times that Boston needed to a better job helping Walker.
“Not just for me, individually, but for everybody else, it just makes the game a lot easier,” Walker said postgame of Brown and Tatum’s contributions. “Those guys are so talented, there’s gonna be so much attention on those guys, so they just made the right plays tonight. They’re very capable of that. Two special guys.”
And with Tatum and Brown dishing, Walker recorded 21 points with five rebounds, three assists and a steal while going 5-for-8 from deep.
“(Brown and Tatum) really wanted to get guys involved, especially me,” Walker said of his teammates.
“They really wanted to get me involved tonight, they know I’ve been struggling, obviously, so big ups to those guys for real.”
