Jaylen Brown named NBA Finals MVP after leading Celtics past Mavericks for first title since 2008

Jaylen Brown took home some extra hardware from TD Garden on Monday night.

Brown was officially named the NBA Finals MVP following the Boston Celtics’ series-clinching win over the Dallas Mavericks, which gave them their first championship since 2008 and 18th in franchise history.

Though all eyes were on Celtics star Jayson Tatum entering the Finals, and rightfully so, it was Brown who shined against the Mavericks. He averaged 20.8 points, 5.4 rebounds and 5 assists throughout the series while shooting 44% from the field, and was a consistent force in their 4-1 series win.

Brown, who the Celtics took with the No. 3 overall pick in 2016 out of Cal, averaged 23 points and 5.5 rebounds per game this season while picking up his third All-Star nod. The 27-year-old just finished the first year of a five-year, $286 million deal with the Celtics.

Brown finished with 21 points, eight rebounds and six assists in their 106-88 win over the Mavericks on Monday night. He shot 7-of-23 from the field and made two 3-pointers in the win, too.

That gave him the edge over Tatum, who had taken a bit of a backseat to Brown in recent weeks. He scored more than 20 points in just one of the Celtics’ first four games of the series, which came in a dominant 31-point outing in Game 3 in Dallas. Despite his slow start, though, Tatum finished with a near-30-point triple-double in Game 5 on Monday night. He dropped 31 points while shooting 11-of-24 from the field, and had 11 assists and 8 rebounds. It was by far his best game in the Finals which, while late, came at the perfect time to ensure the series didn’t return back to Dallas for a Game 6. It just wasn’t enough to claim the MVP trophy.

The Celtics, like they have throughout most of the postseason, largely dominated the Mavericks in the Finals. They jumped out to an easy 3-0 lead after a dominant start in Boston. By that point, the Celtics had won 10 straight games dating back to Game 3 of their second-round series against the Cleveland Cavaliers.

Boston’s lone stumble in the Finals came in Game 4, when Luka Dončić and the Mavericks finally showed up. The Mavericks cruised to a wild 38-point win in Dallas to avoid the series sweep in what ended up being the third-largest win in a Finals game in history.

As it turns out, though, that only delayed the inevitable. The Celtics had no issue putting the Mavericks away for good on Monday night and cruised to the win at TD Garden. That gave them their first title in 16 years.