After years of being one of the most dominant forces in the Eastern Conference, the Boston Celtics finally have another shot at the NBA Championship. To get here, they steamrolled any and all competitors that came their way. In the First Round, it was a 4-1 drubbing of the Miami Heat, which was repeated against the Cleveland Cavaliers.
Against their toughest opponents yet, the Celtics were then perfect against the Indiana Pacers to sweep them in four games. Now well-accustomed to waiting for their opponents to catch up – both the Cavs and Pacers took seven games to complete their series immediately before facing Boston – the Celtics won’t be losing momentum coming into the NBA Finals. This perfectly sets up Jaylen Brown to have a run at the NBA Finals MVP title.
Clear favorite to take the ultimate individual honor
Jaylen Brown has been one of Boston’s standout performers throughout the regular season and the postseason. Across his 14 games, Brown has put up averages of 25.0 points, 6.1 rebounds, and 2.6 assists, allowing him to win favor with the leading NBA bookmakers.
As listed by The Punters Page, each of the bookies has their outright Finals MVP odds sitting with Brown up top. At 10/11, he’s the clear favorite to take the trophy. This does follow a very new trend that we’ve seen in the NBA and, particularly, for MVP honors.
MVP awards for the Western and Eastern Conference Finals are very new. Running since 2022, Jayson Tatum, Jimmy Butler, and now Jaylen Brown have taken the crown. Of course, an Eastern Conference team hasn’t won the Championship during this time. On the Western side, Stephen Curry and Nikola Jokić won the conference MVP and then the Finals MVP. This primes the reigning Eastern Conference MVP to take the Finals crown as well.
Who could stand in Brown’s way?
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Brown’s main competitors come in the form of the star player on the other side of the court and his teammate. Statistically speaking, coming into the NBA Finals, Jayson Tatum was outperforming Brown for minutes, points, rebounds, assists, and blocks.
On the other side of the court, if the Celtics are defeated, the MVP title will go to whichever player was the most influential in toppling the much-favored Bs. Given their postseason dominance, even before their Finals opponent was decided, Boston stood as the team to beat in the minds of most onlookers.
Backing up their championship credentials is actually what they’re missing. Kristaps Porziņģis went down in the first round to, once again, keep him out of the second round of the playoffs. With Luka Dončić and the Dallas Mavericks – who were battling away in the Western Conference Finals at the time of writing – he never went past the first round.
On 29 May, though, Porziņģis let fans know, as reported by The Athletic, that he’d be back “very soon” and is ready to compete in the NBA Finals. A big part of the Boston rotation during the regular season, the Latvian has gone from strength to strength and will only enhance the might of the Celtics in this final stage of the season.
Jaylen Brown is on the fast track to another MVP award, having claimed the conference title and the Celtics tipped to win the NBA crown, but Jayson Tatum may put on a show to usurp the favorite.
