Jaylen Brown leads the Celtics in Game 5 win

That was the Jaylen Brown we saw win the Finals MVP and Eastern Conference Finals MVP on the way to Banner 18.

Brown was all over the court with 26 points, 12 rebounds and 8 assists in Game 5. He really set the tone on the defensive end by pressing Jalen Brunson 94 feet as he brought the ball up the court just like he did with Luka Doncic.

“I think his leadership came on the defensive end,” Joe Mazzulla said after the 127-102 Celtics win. “Just with his physicality and presence, I thought the dive into the bench really changed the game for us… He was just great on all levels, took it upon himself to guard Brunson, and set the tone and he did that on both ends.”

Derrick White also complimented Brown’s leadership saying, “JB was unbelievable, both sides of the ball… He took it upon himself to get us going and just follow his lead. Great game for 48 minutes and he carried us.”

Brown’s leadership was needed, especially after Jayson Tatum tore his Achilles. “The air kind of left the room after hearing the news with JT,” Brown said. “We didn’t want to go out like that. We didn’t want to give excuses. We didn’t want to come out and give up or just turn the season in — what everybody else would probably expect.”

While Brown’s locker room presence set the tone for the Celtics, his play was a major reason why they won the game. His passing really jumped off the screen.

He entered Game 5 with a negative assist to turnover ratio, with 13 assists to 14 turnovers. However, Brown was in control during the entire game with 12 assists to just two turnovers.

He is a little rushed here, but collects himself after losing the dribble. He scans the court and sees a wide-open trailing White who drains the three.

With three Knicks swarming him, Brown is able to scan knowing someone is open, finally throwing a sweet pass to Pritchard in the corner and knocking down a 3.

Brown catches the Jrue Holiday pass, noticing that he had Mitchell Robinson on him, meaning the Knicks primary rim protector isn’t at the rim. He makes the dribble drive right past Robinson and when Towns steps up to help, he makes the easy dump pass to Holiday who lays it in.

Jaylen also made all of the easy reads tonight. He slowed the game down, scanned the court and often made the easy pass that led to an open Celtics shot attempt. He didn’t force it, he let the game come to him, and the Celtics benefitted from it greatly.

He took the assignment of guarding Jalen Brunson, he guarded him 94 feet on a bunch of possessions, made the game really hard. While on the other end he was as effective as ever, some of the shots he was making were unreal.

The Celtics are going to need this version of Jaylen Brown if they are going to make their 4th consecutive Eastern Conference Finals. As Jaylen said after the game, “don’t count us out yet.”