Jaylen Brown Talks Celtics 'Big Picture' After Jayson Tatum's Return, 'It Takes Humility...Not Easy'

Jayson Tatum's recent return to the Boston Celtics' lineup has resulted in Jaylen Brown needing to adjust how he played after being the centerpiece of the offense for the first four months of the regular season.

After the Celtics' 120-112 win over the Phoenix Suns on Monday, Brown admitted to reporters the "big picture" goals for the team put him in a position where he has to switch things up:

"It takes humility, and it takes some understanding. I think JT is extremely important to us for what we want to do. Obviously, I'm having a great season, but I have to think about the big picture, and sometimes that's not easy. I always put the team first and what the bigger picture is first. ... This team is different."

Suns-Celtics Full Highlights

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Brown stepped up huge for the Celtics in the win over Phoenix. He scored 18 points in the fourth quarter, including 10 straight at one point, and finished with 41 for the game.

Even with Tatum's return to the lineup, Brown is still putting up big numbers. He is averaging 24.3 points on 46.0 percent shooting, 6.3 assists and 5.8 rebounds per game since Tatum's season debut on March 6.

Brown's numbers prior to Tatum returning were 28.9 points on 48.0 percent shooting, 7.2 rebounds and 5.0 assists per game in 55 starts.

The Celtics will likely continue to rely on Brown as their go-to scoring option simply because Tatum is still working his way back into peak physical condition after missing nearly 10 months due to a torn Achilles.

This does put some onus on Brown to make sure he's keeping Tatum engaged with the offense. There don't appear to be any issues in that regard, since the Celtics are 4-1 in the five games that Tatum has played thus far.

The big-picture goals for the Celtics are at least an appearance in the Eastern Conference Finals. They have reached that point six times in the past nine seasons, with two trips to the NBA Finals and a title at the end of the 2023-24 campaign.

Boston (45-23) has moved within 3.5 games of the Detroit Pistons for the No. 1 seed in the Eastern Conference. The Pistons won three of their four head-to-head meetings this season, giving them the tiebreak if that comes into play for seeding purposes.