With approximately nine minutes left in the second quarter of their game against the Atlanta Hawks on Sunday, the Boston Celtics came out of their timeout and some of them began searching for one of their star colleagues.
The Celtics' explosive scorer was indeed right there with his teammates as they walked onto the court to resume play. He simply had a slightly different appearance.
Since the middle of February, Brown had been playing with a black face mask on. The native of the Atlanta area's aged face was now clearly visible.
A mask-wearing Brown had been restricted to just two points on 1-for-7 shooting from the field in the first 15 minutes of Game 4 of the Celtics' Eastern Conference first-round series against the Hawks.
Brown believed that something needed to change as a result of that appalling offensive performance.
Brown began playing differently against the Hawks the moment he took off the mask, which he had been wearing for days after breaking his cheekbone in a home victory against the Philadelphia 76ers on February 8.
Brown had a 29-point performance on 11 for 15 shooting from the field without the mask on Sunday. In the 129-121 victory, Brown finished with 31 points, tying Tatum for the team scoring lead.
Brown's performance was crucial in the Celtics taking a 3-1 series lead as they arrived in Boston for Game 5 on Tuesday.
Brown will probably continue to play as a mask in games going ahead despite the midgame move. He claimed that the cartilage around his cheekbone is still recovering.
Brown missed Boston's next four games as a result of the injury. Feb. 19 at the All-Star Game in Salt Lake City, he made his mask debut.