{"id":79084,"date":"2024-05-28T01:31:43","date_gmt":"2024-05-28T05:31:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/?p=79084"},"modified":"2024-05-28T01:41:43","modified_gmt":"2024-05-28T05:41:43","slug":"celtics-jaylen-brown-honored-eastern-conference-finals-mvp","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/2024\/05\/28\/celtics-jaylen-brown-honored-eastern-conference-finals-mvp\/","title":{"rendered":"Unexpected Celtics Starter Honored After Conference Finals Finale"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>After sweeping the Indiana Pacers in the 2024 Eastern Conference Finals, the Boston Celtics are making their 23rd trip to the NBA Finals and their second this decade. Celtics star <a href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/b\/brownja02.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Jaylen Brown<\/a> earned Eastern Conference Finals MVP honors for his sensational play.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\">\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"en\">The Eastern Conference Finals MVP\u2026 Jaylen Brown! <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/WufvMKxUud\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">https:\/\/t.co\/WufvMKxUud<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/sWwZShQ2or\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">pic.twitter.com\/sWwZShQ2or<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 NBA (@NBA) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/NBA\/status\/1795294507472506968?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">May 28, 2024<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>Though <a href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/t\/tatumja01.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Jayson Tatum<\/a> led the team with 30.3 points and 10.3 rebounds per game, it&#8217;s Brown&#8217;s efficiency, defense, and clutch performance allowed him to <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/NBAPR\/status\/1795288513392640449\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">edge out his teammate (5-4) in voting<\/a> for the aptly named Larry Bird Trophy. The three-time All-Star averaged 29.8 points, 5.0 rebounds, 3.0 assists, 2.0 steals and 0.8 blocks per game against the Pacers, shooting 51.7 percent from the field and 37.0 percent from 3.<\/p>\n<p>As Boston&#8217;s most efficient scorer in a series that was closer than the record shows, Brown&#8217;s late game heroics are arguably the only reason that they went undefeated this round. In Game 1, Brown had a clutch 3 that pushed the game into overtime, where they outlasted the Pacers. In Game 3, Brown scored 40 points, becoming the <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/2024\/05\/24\/celtics-jaylen-brown-strongly-worded-response-underrated\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_self\">first player in franchise history<\/a> with multiple 40-point games in the Conference Finals.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\">\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"en\">Jaylen Brown with two huge plays. First the block, then the dime.<\/p>\n<p>And what a shot by Derrick White. It&#8217;s actually a game-winning three: <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/WJR6MCAaWx\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">pic.twitter.com\/WJR6MCAaWx<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Tomek Kordylewski (@Timi_093) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/Timi_093\/status\/1795283981300289860?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">May 28, 2024<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><br \/>\nOn Memorial Day, Brown had a night to remember, making plays on both ends down the stretch of Game 4.<\/p>\n<h2>Jaylen Brown Honored After Conference Finals Finale<\/h2>\n<p>On the podium for his postgame presser, Brown revealed that he didn&#8217;t expect to be named MVP.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;I wasn&#8217;t expecting it at all,&#8221; he says. &#8220;You know, I don&#8217;t ever win s***.&#8221;<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\">\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"en\">Jaylen Brown on winning ECF MVP:<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI wasn\u2019t expecting it at all. I never win s***.\u201d <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/ZbZdcVX3ql\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">pic.twitter.com\/ZbZdcVX3ql<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Noa Dalzell \ud83c\udfc0 (@NoaDalzellNBA) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/NoaDalzellNBA\/status\/1795295038823702636?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">May 28, 2024<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>&#8220;So, I was just happy that we won,&#8221; Brown continues. &#8220;Give credit to Indiana. They played us tough&#8230; I thought they was tough as anybody we played all season. They were physical, they were fast, and they put a lot of pressure on us. So, shoutout to them and respect to them.&#8221;<\/p>\n<h3>No Haliburton, No Problem?<\/h3>\n<p>The absence of All-Star guard <a href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/h\/halibty01.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Tyrese Haliburton<\/a> was undeniably a high hurdle for the Pacers to clear. To that point, the 24-year-old averaged 17.5 points, 9.0 assists, and 2.0 steals per game in the two games that he was healthy. He also knocked down 40.0 percent of his 3-pointers on a team-high 10.0 3-point attempts per game.<\/p>\n<p>However, with the way <a href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/n\/nembhan01.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Andrew Nembhard<\/a> stepped up in his absence, it&#8217;s difficult to say the Celtics&#8217; path got much easier. In four games, Nembhard averaged 21.0 points and 7.8 assists per game while shooting 54.1 percent from the field and 47.6 percent from 3. Though Indiana is more formidable with their floor general, Brown&#8217;s assessment of their play was spot-on.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>After sweeping the Indiana Pacers in the 2024 Eastern Conference Finals, the Boston Celtics are making their 23rd trip to the NBA Finals and their second this decade. Celtics star Jaylen Brown earned Eastern Conference Finals MVP honors for his sensational play. The Eastern Conference Finals MVP\u2026 Jaylen Brown! https:\/\/t.co\/WufvMKxUud pic.twitter.com\/sWwZShQ2or \u2014 NBA (@NBA) May [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5008,"featured_media":79087,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[5,1608,11,62],"tags":[950,450,798,4745,596,2607],"class_list":["post-79084","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-celtics","category-basketball","category-pacers","category-nba","tag-andrew-nembhard","tag-jaylen-brown","tag-jayson-tatum","tag-nba-injuries","tag-nba-playoffs","tag-tyrese-haliburton"],"modified_by":"Quenton S Albertie","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/79084","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5008"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=79084"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/79084\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/79087"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=79084"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=79084"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=79084"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}