There was a lot to love in Sunday’s Boston Celtics win over the Cleveland Cavaliers. Payton Pritchard went nuclear, Jordan Walsh logged career highs in both points and rebounds, while Jaylen Brown notched a triple-double to help the Cs hold onto a 117-115 win in Cleveland.
Brown’s well-rounded performance overshadowed a massive career achievement. The 28-year-old scored his 12,000th NBA point against the Cavs, becoming just the 14th Celtics player to reach that mark.
Jaylen Brown recorded his 12,000th career point tonight with 5:40 left in the third quarter.
— Celtics Stats (@celtics_stats) December 1, 2025
He’s now just 191 points away from passing Tommy Heinsohn to become 13th all-time in Celtics scoring.
It’s not unrealistic for Brown to continue his climb up the franchise’s list throughout this season. Boston still has 62 regular-season games remaining. If Brown appears in all of them and maintains his current average of 28.4 points per game, he’ll rack up another 1,760 points by the end of the year.
Of course, injuries are very real, and it’s unlikely for Brown to play all 82 games in the 2025-26 campaign. He does, however, have about 500 points of wiggle room at that pace if he wants to eclipse Dave Cowens’ 13,192 to move into the top 10.
Jaylen Brown continues to grow as his Celtics career goes on
Brown, now in his 10th season with the Celtics, was drafted third overall in the 2016 NBA Draft out of California. His rookie season was atypical for a top-three pick. He came off the bench for the majority of it, playing a smaller role on a first-place Celtics team.
The next season, he was key in the overachieving 2018 team’s playoff run, where they came just one game from the NBA Finals, despite missing stars Kyrie Irving and Gordon Hayward.
As the years went on, Brown’s role continued to increase until he and Jayson Tatum became the clear leaders for Boston. In 2022, Brown and Tatum led the Cs to their first NBA Finals berth since 2010, but ultimately fell to the Golden State Warriors in six games.
Two years later, the Celtics returned to the Finals, this time defeating the Dallas Mavericks to win their 18th NBA title. Brown was named Eastern Conference Finals MVP and Finals MVP after an impressive playoff run.
Now, he’s taken on the burden of upholding the Celtics’ standard of winning without Tatum, as he recovers from a ruptured Achilles tendon. Not only is he taking on that burden, but he’s thriving under the pressure.
Brown’s 28.4 average of points per game is a career-high. Not only is he scoring more than ever, but he’s done it efficiently, shooting 49% from the field and 34.7% from beyond the arc.
If he’s able to sustain this level of play, it’ll do wonders not only for this team’s ceiling, but for how he’s talked about on a national level.