Forsberg: How Smart and Jaylen have gone from headlocks to harmony originally appeared on NBC Sports Boston
Marcus Smart had already handed out five helpers to Jaylen Brown in the first half and it was almost like he wanted to up the degree of difficulty a bit.
Pushing the ball in transition early in the third quarter on Monday night, Smart dribbled through two Wizards defenders protecting the paint, caught Brown’s defender ball-watching, and delivered a snazzy no-look bounce pass that Brown finished with a layup on the other side of the rim.
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Smart has assisted on 43 Brown buckets this year. That’s the third-most among any combo in the NBA, trailing only the Indiana Pacers' duo of Tyrese Haliburton and Buddy Hield (54) and Golden State’s tandem of Draymond Green and Steph Curry (47). There’s an undeniable chemistry between Smart and Brown that has resulted in each playing the best basketball of their careers.
"That’s my brother," Brown told NBC Sports Boston after finishing with 36 points in a Jayson Tatum-less win over Washington. "We’ve been through ups and downs, we’ve been through fights and headlocks, all types of stuff. You don’t even want to know the details, I promise."
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Actually, we do want to know the details.
"Maybe another time," Brown added with a big smile.