Jaylen Brown wanted to send a message Saturday night in Los Angeles — one he hasn’t been shy about trumpeting lately.

One day after losing out on Eastern Conference Player of the Month honors to New York’s Jalen Brunson, Brown delivered what head coach Joe Mazzulla called “one of the most complete games that I’ve seen him play,” tying his career high with 50 points on 18-of-26 shooting in a 146-115 rout of the Clippers.

Brown also asked for and handled the challenge of defending LA’s top scorer, Kawhi Leonard. The six-time All-Star went 6-for-17 and scored 22 points after averaging nearly 40 over his previous six games.

“I believe I’m the best two-way player in the world,” Brown told reporters after the game, “so I wanted to just come out and show it.”

The Celtics star said the same in an on-court interview with NBC Sports Boston sideline reporter Abby Chin, and in a post on X earlier in the week.

Best 2 way player in the game

— Jaylen Brown (@FCHWPO) December 31, 2025

Those talents, Brown believes, have not been sufficiently recognized.

He’s been voted to four All-Star Games, with a fifth sure to come this season, and was MVP of the conference finals and NBA Finals during Boston’s 2024 championship run. But he’s made just one All-NBA team (a second-team nod in 2022-23) and zero All-Defensive teams since entering the league in 2016.

In December, Brown received two Eastern Conference Player of the Week awards, but the month-long honor — which would have been the first of his career — went instead to Brunson, despite Brown boasting better numbers in nearly every statistical category.

Brown tweeted “smh” (shaking my head) after Brunson’s award was announced Friday. In a separate comment on Instagram, he blamed his snub on “politics.”

“My mindset, I like when my back is against the wall,” Brown told reporters in Los Angeles. “I like when people doubt. It fuels me. Even though it would be nice to get some respect, you know, keep it up. I definitely use it as fuel.”

Brown is doing all he can to earn that respect.

Given top billing for the first time while Jayson Tatum recovers from Achilles surgery, the 29-year-old is putting together the best season of his career as the leader of a Celtics team that has far exceeded preseason expectations.

He’s averaging 30.1 points (fourth-most in the NBA), 6.3 rebounds and 5.0 assists per game, with career-best marks in field-goal percentage, effective field-goal percentage and true shooting percentage. Defensively, opponents are shooting 42.6% against him, per NBA player tracking, which ranks in the top 10 among non-bigs who’ve defended at least 10 field goals per game. His team sits just a half-game out of second place in the East after turning over half of its rotation this offseason.

Long overshadowed by his more decorated co-star, Brown is emerging as a legitimate NBA MVP candidate as the season’s halfway mark approaches. The favorite? Not at this point. But he certainly belongs in the conversation, especially since injured three-time winner Nikola Jokic might fall short of the 65 games needed to qualify.

“I’ve always put the team first,” Brown told reporters. “Whatever the coaching staff has asked me to do, I’ve done. And now, I’ve been asked to do more because a lot of guys were traded and we were forced to be put in this position. And I’m grateful, because I’ve been able to show the world who I am and who I’ve been. So I just want to keep it up, stay healthy, keep playing team basketball, and I’m excited.”

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Brown, by the numbers

Some statistical context on Brown’s big night in LA and his stellar season to date:

— Brown became just the fifth Celtics player to score 50-plus points multiple times (including playoffs), joining Tatum (seven times), Larry Bird (four), Sam Jones (two) and Isaiah Thomas (two). The full list of 50-point Celtics scorers is just 10 players long: Brown, Tatum, Thomas and seven Basketball Hall of Famers — Bird, Jones, Bob Cousy, John Havlicek, Kevin McHale, Paul Pierce and Ray Allen.

— Brown is on pace for the highest single-season scoring average in Celtics history. He’s currently averaging 30.09 points per game, a hair above Tatum’s 30.07 in 2022-23. No other Boston player has topped 30 points per game in a season (Bird averaged 29.9 in 1987-88).

— Thirty-four games in (of which he played 32), Brown has 963 points, 201 rebounds and 159 assists. Only one other Celtic has put up at least 950 points, 200 rebounds and 150 assists over the team’s first 34 games of a season: Havlicek in 1970-71.

— Maintaining his statistical pace for another 48 games will be a challenge, but if Brown can, he’d become just the 16th player in NBA history to average at least 30 points, six rebounds and five assists per game in a season. That exclusive club is stocked with Hall of Famers and all-time greats: Giannis Antetokounmpo (3x), Luka Doncic, Joel Embiid, LeBron James (3x), James Harden (2x), Russell Westbrook, Kevin Durant, Kobe Bryant, Tracy McGrady, Michael Jordan (5x), Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Oscar Robertson (6x), Wilt Chamberlain (2x), Jerry West (2x) and Elgin Baylor.

Walsh delivers after demotion

Had Brown not dropped 50, the story of Saturday night’s game might have been Jordan Walsh’s response.

In the first tactical change to his starting lineup since mid-November, Mazzulla replaced Walsh with veteran sharpshooter Sam Hauser. The demotion ended a streak of 20 consecutive starts for the 21-year-old wing (excluding one game he missed due to illness), during which the Celtics went 15-5 and Walsh drew rave reviews for his defense. Walsh, though, had seen his playing time dip of late, to the point that he only played the first five minutes of Thursday’s win over Sacramento.

Walsh also was not part of Mazzulla’s first round of substitutions against the Clippers. But after rookie Hugo Gonzalez struggled to stay in front of James Harden on a few early drives, Mazzulla turned to Walsh, who proceeded to have one of his most productive games of the season. He played 30 minutes in the blowout win, finishing with 13 points on 5-of-7 shooting (3-of-4 from 3-point range) and a career-high 13 rebounds, including six offensive boards. Walsh also blocked one shot and dished out two assists.

“I thought he was tremendous,” Mazzulla told reporters. “Thirteen and 13. But I think the idea here is he didn’t move to the bench. We went with Sam because we knew what their lineups were going to be. We wanted to get off to a great start in the offensive end. … I think it’s a testament to the guys that we’re always going to do what gives us the best chance to win, and everyone has embraced that. So for him to understand that, and for Sam to come out and play well, and then for Jordan to even give us the production that he did, it just shows the mindset of the team.”

Off the rim

The only player listed on Boston’s injury report ahead of Monday’s home matchup with the Chicago Bulls was Tatum, who has yet to see game action this season.