Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown joined forces to lift the Celtics to a sweep of the Indiana Pacers and advance Boston to the NBA Finals.
But the running mates had to battle it out for the Larry Bird Trophy, given to the MVP of the Eastern Conference finals, on Monday night when the Celtics claimed a narrow 105-102 win in Game 4 at Gainbridge Fieldhouse.
Brown edged out Tatum to take home the playoff honor. The award is voted on by members of the media and Brown received five votes while Tatum got four.
“We were in this building not too long ago and we were getting boos,” Brown told ESPN’s Lisa Salters after being announced the winner of the award. “Thankful to God to be here, appreciate everything, man. Let’s get some more.”
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Brown sure was deserving of the recognition. He rescued the Celtics in Game 1 with a clutch 3-pointer from the corner to force overtime and finished the series averaging 29.8 points on 51.7% shooting from the field while also hitting 37% of his 3-point attempts.
Brown, who matched his playoff career-high with 40 points in Game 2, came through for the Celtics to close out the Pacers in Game 4. He netted 19 of his game-high 29 points in the second half and finished shooting 11-for-22 from the field. He also assisted on Derrick White’s game-winning triple and came up with a clutch block on Pacers guard Andrew Nembhard with the game tied and just a little over a minute left in the fourth quarter.
Tatum, who was named Eastern Conference finals MVP in 2022, had a strong performance in the closeout game as well. He tallied 26 points to go along with 13 rebounds and eight assists.
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Brown and Tatum will now set their eyes on not only a championship but trying to claim NBA Finals MVP, too.
Featured image via Trevor Ruszkowski/USA TODAY Sports Images
