Jaylen Brown thought his portfolio of stats was enough to win the Eastern Conference Player of the Month award for December.
Instead, he was left frustrated that the Knicks’ Jalen Brunson emerged with the nod instead.
“Smh,” Brown wrote in a succinct X post responding to an NBA graphic depicting Brunson as the winner for the Eastern Conference and Thunder superstar Shai Gilgeous-Alexander for the Western Conference.
Brown averaged 31.7 points, 6.5 rebounds and 5.4 assists on 53.8 percent shooting across 10 games, helping Boston to a 7-3 record in those matchups — en route to the Celtics’ 9-3 month overall.
He tied Larry Bird for the most consecutive 30-point games in franchise history with nine, according to Celtics Wire, and even poured in 42 points during Boston’s Dec. 2 win over the Knicks.
Brunson, who managed just 15 points during the meeting between the teams last month, averaged 30.6 points and 7.1 assists per game, and he also helped guide the Knicks to the NBA Cup title — and claimed the in-season tournament’s MVP award, too — with 25 points during a Dec. 16 win against the Spurs that didn’t count in the standings.
With Celtics star Jayson Tatum likely out for most of the season while recovering from a torn Achilles, Brown has been forced to step into the role as the No. 1 scoring option, and through at least the first chunk of the season, there hasn’t been a steep drop-off.
Boston sat in third in the Eastern Conference entering Saturday’s games, trailing the Knicks by 1 ½ games for the No. 2 seed and the Pistons by 3 ½ games for the top spot.
Brown hasn’t won Player of the Month before, according to Bleacher Report, but he has still produced plenty of successful stretches with the Celtics since they selected him No. 3 overall in the 2016 NBA Draft.
He won the 2024 NBA Finals MVP and has made four All-Star Games.
The Celtics will aim for their seventh win in eight games when they face the Clippers on Saturday to continue their West Coast trip.
