Even if Luka Doncic misses the Lakers’ trip to Boston Friday night, there’s likely to be another league-leading scorer on the floor for Lakers vs. Celtics: Jaylen Brown.
Brown, who missed Thursday’s game against the Washington Wizards with an illness, currently ranks among the NBA’s five biggest points scorers.
Through 21 games played, he comes in fourth in total points scored, (609). He trails only Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, Tyrese Maxey, and Donovan Mitchell.
While Doncic leads the league in points per game, (35.3), Brown comes in fifth, (33.4).
What makes Brown’s totals more impressive is how sparingly he gets to the free throw line when compared to his scoring peers. Gilgeous-Alexander takes the most trips to the line, with 434 free throws attempted. Doncic comes in third in that category.
Where does Brown rank? A cool 15th.
Those numbers shouldn’t surprise anyone who’s tuned into the Celtics this week. Brown has scored over 40 points in two of the Celtics’ last three games. He’s also had 11 games where he’s scored 30 points or more this season, passing the nine-game mark he set last year…through 63 total games.
Despite Brown’s production, he’s barely cracked the MVP conversation on the national stage. A brand-new ranking of the KIA MVP ladder mentioned Brown for the first time this season and slotted him at the 10th spot. Nikola Jokic leads the chase, with reigning MVP Gilgeous-Alexander coming in second.
His case may be hurt by his relative efficiency. Jokic, Doncic, and Gilgeous-Alexander round out the top-3 most efficient players in the league, which is a metric that factors in negatives like missed shots and turnovers, as well as game pace. Brown ranks 20th in the metric.
That position is good, but not among the conventional leaders in the MVP race.
Still, Brown’s numbers have clearly made others around the league sit up and take notice.
The Celtics host the Lakers at TD Garden Friday night.
Doncic missed Thursday’s contest against Toronto due to the birth of his child, and it sounds unlikely that he will play Friday.