It's been no secret that Kristaps Porzingis and Jaylen Brown have built a strong bond with each other since the Latvian's arrival to the Boston Celtics this past offseason. After posting 21 points on 9-of-15 shooting, six rebounds, and an assist in Wednesday night's 119-116 win over the Milwaukee Bucks, Porzingis improved on an already stellar season so far, consistently being set up to score by Brown.
The Porzingis and Brown connection is statistically proven, as Brown is passing to and assisting Porzingis nearly twice as often as he does to other teammates. Brown is averaging 3.6 total assists per game, with 1.5 per game going to Porzingis (21 of his 50 total assists). He is also averaging 7.2 passes per game to the big man alone, with Jayson Tatum being the second-highest recipient at 4.5.
Porzingis is scoring off of Brown's passes as well, hitting 49 percent of his shots from the field.
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It's not just Porzingis benefiting from the connection, but Brown as well. The big man has found a habit of hitting Brown on the perimeter, leading to Brown converting on 40 percent of his shots from deep.
Brown and Porzingis seemingly always know where each other are on the court at all times, regardless of how little time they have had so far to play with each other. This was seen in Wednesday's win, where the two worked together for a clean give-and-go alley-oop.
With Porzingis at the top of the key, the big man passed it to Brown behind his back, who lobbed it back to the 7-footer for a strong finish at the rim.
Following Monday night's win over the Bucks, Porzingis spoke on the budding chemistry between the two stars.
"Yeah, I absolutely love playing with J.B.," Porzingis said. "I think we're starting to connect more and more, and it's becoming natural for us. And yeah, and I'm learning his game. I'm learning the situations he likes to be in, and as you can see, we're having some success with it, you know. It's really fun. It's really fun to play with him and I look forward to more of those plays."
Brown had another solid night as well, logging 26 points on 10-of-16 shooting, eight assists, two rebounds, and a steal.
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"Honestly, it's just him making the game easy for me," Porzingis said of playing with Brown. "I'm just making it easy for him. If he comes off, he wants to handle [the ball], boom, I hand it to him, I start rolling. He kind of plays that game a little bit, and then he just either finishes or throws the lob. He's making it easy for me."
Porzingis had also previously noted that both he and Brown live in the same building, sit next to each other on team flights, and drive to and from practices and games together. With chemistry building off the court as well, it makes it easy for the two to connect on the court.
"We sit next to each other on the plane, so we talk all the time, and he's a funny guy," Porzingis added of Brown. "Smart, intelligent, funny. We just click, you know, and that translates on the court. And I think it's as I said, I think it's only going to get better."
The Celtics will resume action on Friday afternoon at 2:30 p.m. ET as they take on the Orlando Magic on the road in an In-Season Tournament group stage matchup.