Celtics guard Jaylen Brown drives to the basket against Pistons’ forward Ronald Holland II on Wednesday in Boston. The Celtics won, 130-120. Charles Krupa/Associated Press

BOSTON — Jaylen Brown averaged 1.6 assists per game during his first full season as a starter (2017-18) with the Celtics. Seven years later he’s nearly tripled that average (4.6 assists per game) through the first 22 games of the Celtics’ 2024-25 season.

That growth in his game was on display Wednesday night as Brown dished out a season-high nine assists for the Celtics in a 130-120 win over the Detroit Pistons. With Jayson Tatum (knee) and Jrue Holiday (knee) sidelined, Brown played a bigger role in initiating the offense and his improved court vision was evident.

Brown scored 16 of his game-high 28 points in the first quarter but he became more of a facilitator later in the game. It’s an area the All-Star has clearly taken pride in after starting his career with tunnel vision.

“I’ve improved on things,” Brown said. “A lot of my weaknesses in the past I’ve attacked. So being able to run a team and an offense is something that I look forward to in those moments. Obviously, on our team you won’t see it as much because we’ve got a lot of guys that are ball dominant and that are really good players. But in these moments, you gotta step up and make plays.

“Tonight, I was just trying to get my teammates involved, especially in the second half. I didn’t think we shot it as well in the second half, but we got a plethora of good looks.”

Celtics Coach Joe Mazzulla has clearly gained a stronger trust in Brown to take a bigger role in running the offense.

“It’s been fun to see him grow over the last few years in his reads,” Mazzulla said. “If you’re watching, you’ll see him be able to process the game in real time and see the adjustments that are being made on him and recognizing the matchup, recognizing the spacing. I think he’s gotten better – a couple times that I was like ‘Get what you want.’ He dictates the defense, and he plays at a pace to where he can get to the spacing that he wants, he knows the shots that he wants. So he works out every day and it’s fun watching him just continue to grow in the game and understand it in real time and get better. And it’s fun talking to him during the game about it too.”

Brown’s assist rate of 19.5 percent is behind only Jayson Tatum and Derrick White on the Celtics. That’s a career high for him and a significant jump from last season where he ranked fifth on the roster. Brown’s turnover rate has also stayed steady despite the increased playmaking with the best assist/turnover ratio of his career.

Brown has happily stepped aside in recent nights when Payton Pritchard has had the hot hand and he purposefully tried to feed Kristaps Porzingis at several points. That unselfishness led to praise from the big man.

“I think he did a great job tonight,” Porzingis said. “He was like he was exerting a lot of energy just to create, just to get downhill. And of course, they’re trying to be physical with him. But his physicality, his motor is like, he’s an animal, I’m not gonna lie. And he’s guarding, and he’s getting downhill looking for a kick out. And all of these kick outs are, like, it might not even be an assist for him, but it’s like a hockey pass.

“He kicks out, it’s the next guy in the corner, boom, corner 3, this, this. I think sometimes it even goes unnoticed but he’s JB. We almost expect this from him, but he’s really really good.”

Brown’s hip injury seems to be behind him and he looks poised to make another All-Star team. More importantly for Boston, Brown is becoming more of a team player.

The team’s supporting cast is turning into bigger offensive weapons with Pritchard and White having breakout seasons and Brown’s embracing finding those guys to help Boston’s offense reach greater heights.