Jaylen Brown came out with his hair on fire Wednesday night at TD Garden.
After a frustrating finish for Brown in Boston’s loss to the Utah Jazz on Monday night, the Celtics star was a man on a mission Wednesday against the Washington Wizards. He poured in 24 first-half points — including 16 in the first quarter — and added 11 more in the third quarter to help the C’s pull away from the Wizards in a 136-107 rout.
Despite not sitting the entire fourth quarter, Brown racked up 35 points on 8 for 12 shooting to go along with five rebounds and five assists in just 25 minutes and 53 seconds of playing time. In doing so, he became the first Celtics player ever and just the fifth player in NBA history to post a 35/5/5 line in fewer than 26 minutes.
The only two players who reached 35/5/5 in fewer minutes? Michael Jordan and Luka Doncic.
“We just needed to come out a little bit more focused,” Brown told NBC Sports Boston’s Abby Chin after the game. “We got off to a slow start, but we’ve just got to come out and play basketball. We’ve got to come out like we’re ready to fight. And if we do that, we’ll be all right.”
Brown’s stat line wasn’t the only part of his game that turned heads, however. In the third quarter, Brown was call for an offensive foul when he barreled head-first into Wizards forward Kyshawn George — and left a bit of “residue” on George’s white sleeve.
That wasn’t the first time Brown’s hair product ended up on an opponent’s jersey, as the All-Star wing was roasted on social media after leaving a dark spot on OG Anunoby’s jersey during a Nov. 24 loss to the New York Knicks.
Brown took that incident in stride, even jokingly calling up LeBron James for hair care advice on a recent Twitch stream. And after leaving his latest mark Wednesday night, Brown kept the same energy, joking on X that “AI is getting out of hand.”
Regardless of how Brown chooses to deal with his hair situation going forward, he shouldn’t change what he’s doing on the court: He’s shooting a career-best 53.5 percent from the floor while averaging 27.7 points, 4.4 rebounds and 4.3 assists per game.
The Celtics are back in action Friday night in Orlando, where they’ll face the Magic in an NBA Cup game at 7 p.m. ET on NBC Sports Boston.
