Jaylen Brown faces his old team when the 76ers meet the Celtics, and neither he nor Jayson Tatum is giving the reunion storyline any oxygen. Brown says his focus is on winning a matchup between two of the East's top teams; Tatum called it "another game on the schedule," per CBS Sports.

The subtext is harder to ignore. Brown and Tatum spent nine seasons together in Boston before this summer's trade split one of the league's longest-running duos. Former teammate Marcus Smart stirred the pot this week, pointedly assigning blame for the fallout between the two stars in comments that made the rounds ahead of the game.

On the court, Boston's answer to losing Brown has been replacement by committee. Rather than a single successor, the Celtics have spread his minutes and shot volume across the roster around Tatum — the latest reshuffle for a franchise that has cycled through co-stars from Kyrie Irving to Gordon Hayward to Kemba Walker during the Tatum era.

The game itself offers the first real scoreboard verdict on how both sides of the split are holding up.