BOSTON — Jaylen Brown certainly looked All-NBA on Thursday.

Brown, an All-NBA snub on Wednesday, was the best player on the court in the Celtics’ Game 2 126-107 win over the Pacers. He tied his postseason high with 40 points on 14-of-27 shooting. And he finished 4-of-10 from behind the arc and 8-of-11 on free throws.

“Just making the right play. Poise, patience, discipline, the proper actions, getting the right spacing,” head coach Joe Mazzulla said of Brown’s performance. “He hit his spots really well whether it was in transition or in the half court. So, he just continues to get better and better. He takes a lot of pride in his ability to impact the game in different ways, and I think he did that tonight.”

Mazzulla showed some foresight before tipoff.

Mazzulla believed that Brown’s maturity would help the Celtics star not get bogged down by his All-NBA snub. Brown responded well immediately despite an overall slow start for the Celtics, who trailed 27-25 after the first quarter.

“I don’t have to (talk to him about it),” Mazzulla said Thursday before Game 2. “But he has a great outlook on life. He knows what’s important and what’s not. He works really hard, and he knows who he is as a person and a player. That’s the most important thing.”

“Jaylen’s just like one of my favorite people,” Mazzulla continued after the game. “How’s he handle that? I think he cares about it in a way that motivates him, and I think he doesn’t really care about it at all because he understands that winning is the most important thing. He has an innate ability to just get there and to work hard, motivation. He has unreal confidence, but he also isn’t afraid to work on things that he knows he has to get better at.”

Brown scored 24 points with three rebounds in the game’s first 24 minutes. During a 20-0 run from the Celtics that stretched from the end of the first quarter into midway through the second period, Brown scored 10 points.

The three-time All-Star finished the game with five rebounds, two assists, one steal and one turnover.

With 50 third-place votes and no first- or second-place votes, Brown was the first player left off the All-NBA teams, which are decided by the media.

Guard Payton Pritchard took issue with the voting given the Celtics’ standing as the league’s best team.

“JB, that’s a snub, for sure,” Pritchard told reporters on Thursday before Game 2. “I don’t understand how you can be the No. 1 team by a wide margin and only have one dude. JB’s been terrific all year. Two-way player. He definitely deserves to be on there.”

Jayson Tatum was the Celtics’ only All-NBA selection, earning his third straight first-team honors. Brown outshined his superstar teammate in Game 2. Tatum finished with 23 points after a quiet first half.

Brown had a down season statistically, averaging 23 points with 5.5 rebounds and 3.6 assists per game, but he also took fewer shots compared to previous seasons. He has said he’s playing the best basketball of his career. That continues into the Eastern Conference Finals.

Mazzulla was asked about some of the criticism players have received this season for having down statistical seasons and responded by commenting on the selflessness of some of the team’s top players.

“I haven’t paid too much attention to it, but obviously I know it’s there,” Mazzulla said. “To me, at the end of the day, this is a group of guys that just want to win. It’s time to do whatever it takes. Up until this exact, point, everybody on the team has put together the physical, mental approach towards doing everything and anything to give us the best chance to win. That’s all you can ask for in a team is that each guy brings that kind of mindset that whatever we have to do to win, we’ll do whether that’s screening, passing, rebounding, defense. And so I think that’s one of the biggest strengths of this team thus far. We’ll see how it plays out. That should be the biggest thing is that it’s just a group of guys that want to win.”

And they’ve done plenty of winning. The Celtics led the NBA with 64 wins this season and have lost just two playoff games through two series. They beat the Pacers 133-128 in overtime of Game 1. Brown sent the game to overtime with a game-tying three-pointer with six seconds left on the clock. He scored 26 points with seven rebounds, five assists, three steals and a block in the win.