Jaylen Brown ditches mask, sparks Celtics to Game 4 win

ATLANTA — When the Boston Celtics emerged from their timeout with about nine minutes remaining in Sunday's second quarter against the Atlanta Hawks, some started looking around for one of their star teammates.

They wondered: Where was Jaylen Brown? Did he disappear?

No, he didn't. But he did change face.

At the very moment his teammates were walking onto the floor to resume play, the Celtics' electric scorer was indeed right there with them. He was just sporting a slightly different look.

Brown had ditched the black face mask he had been wearing in games since the middle of February. The Atlanta-area native's old visage had finally come back into focus, and with it arrived a major and timely change.

«I was talking to [Marcus] Smart when JB took his mask off and was like, 'Oh, s---. It's go time,'» Celtics guard Jayson Tatum said. «I knew he was going to turn it up a notch.»

Across the first 15 minutes of Game 4 of the Celtics' Eastern Conference opening-round series against the Hawks, a mask-wearing Brown had been held to a meager two points on a 1-for-7 shooting performance from the field.

Because of that abysmal offensive showing, Brown felt something needed to change.

«Maybe it was all in my head, but I just needed a different look,» he said. «As soon as I took it off, things started to turn around a little bit.»

Things turned 180 degrees.

From the moment Brown took off the mask — which he started wearing days after sustaining a fracture along his cheekbone in a Feb. 8 home win over the Philadelphia 76ers — he started playing differently against the Hawks.

Without the mask on Sunday, Brown scored 29 points on an 11 for 15 showing from the field. Each of his three assists and three made 3s came in that stretch in which