Marcus Smart had already handed out five helpers to Jaylen Brown in the first half and it was almost like he wanted to up the degree of difficulty a bit.
Pushing the ball in transition early in the third quarter on Monday night, Smart dribbled through two Wizards defenders protecting the paint, caught Brown’s defender ball-watching, and delivered a snazzy no-look bounce pass that Brown finished with a layup on the other side of the rim.
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Smart has assisted on 43 Brown buckets this year. That’s the third-most among any combo in the NBA, trailing only the Indiana Pacers' duo of Tyrese Haliburton and Buddy Hield (54) and Golden State’s tandem of Draymond Green and Steph Curry (47). There’s an undeniable chemistry between Smart and Brown that has resulted in each playing the best basketball of their careers.
"That’s my brother," Brown told NBC Sports Boston after finishing with 36 points in a Jayson Tatum-less win over Washington. "We’ve been through ups and downs, we’ve been through fights and headlocks, all types of stuff. You don’t even want to know the details, I promise."
Actually, we do want to know the details.
"Maybe another time," Brown added with a big smile.
The headlocks shouldn’t be a surprise. Smart offered no shortage of tough love on Brown’s path to the All-Star-level player he is today. Brown didn’t hesitate to push back on Smart when he got singled out for defensive lapses.
But those moments brought those two players closer over the past seven seasons. The two are in such lockstep now that they wore the same mustard-colored sweatshirt to games just a few days apart earlier this season, with Smart joking that he wore it first and Brown copied him out of admiration.
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It’s Smart, though, who has repeatedly suggested that Brown deserves to be in the MVP conversation based on his output this season. That’s a bold statement -- if only because Tatum has been otherworldly for stretches and is perched near the top of that award discussion -- but it’s not outlandish to suggest that Brown is on a path towards All-Star and All-NBA nods (the latter of which could have big financial implications).
Brown is averaging a career-best 26.1 points per game on super efficient 50.7 percent shooting. And that’s while his 3-point shot lags behind his career average (Brown is shooting 34.4 percent beyond the arc but was at 39.7 percent two seasons ago).
Celtics Talk POSTGAME POD: Jaylen Brown goes OFF while the bench steps up without Jayson Tatum in win vs. Wizards | Listen & Subscribe
Smart deserves credit, too, for quarterbacking an offense on a historic pace. His 7.1 assists per game is a career best. Not only is the Smart/Brown combo one of the top assist duos in the league but the Smart/Tatum combo resides in the top 10 as well with 39 connections.
Smart, though, insists his chemistry with Brown is nothing new.
"It's always been there," said Smart. "I guess it's just being highlighted more now that I'm starting at the point guard position more than any other time. But we've always had that connection.
"JB's one of the most athletic guys in this league, especially going up the court. North, south, west, going that way, east-west, wherever you want to go, whichever way you go, he's one of the fastest guys. So when he gets out and he runs, it's hard for people to keep up with him and that's how we're gonna get easy buckets for not only him, but for our team."
Still, these two have turned off-the-court headlocks into some excellent on-court chemistry. And it’s a big reason the Celtics have the NBA’s best record at the quarter mark of the season.
"We’ve been playing together for a long time," said Brown. "I think me and Smart are probably the longest-tenured Celtics. I think he’s the first and I’m the second, right? We’re just playing off one another. I think a lot of my assists are to him as well, so Smart’s a guy, he believes in me.
"He’s one of the guys who’s always letting me know like, you’re one of the better guys in this league so don’t let anybody forget that. I appreciate him for being a great teammate, being a great supporter.
"Me and Smart, we’ve had fights, we’ve had ups, we’ve had downs, but at the end of the day, that’s my brother and I appreciate him trying to make me the best version of myself."