Jayson Tatum, Jaylen Brown on the brink of making Celtics history despite whoever wins Finals MVP

Jayson Tatum, Jaylen Brown and the Celtics are one win away from raising that elusive 18th banner.

The All-Star duo combined for 61 points in the team's 106-99 victory Wednesday night to give Boston a 3-0 lead over the Dallas Mavericks in the NBA Finals.

Brown, who's averaging a team-high 24.3 points on 55.1% shooting from the field in the series, could be the leading vote-getter for Most Valuable Player after scoring 30 points to go along with eight assists and eight rebounds in Game 3.

However, for Tatum, it doesn't matter who wins another individual award as long as it means that him and his teammates are crowned champions when it's all said and done.

"Man, I want everybody to be at their best. I want everybody to contribute. Winning will take care of everything," Tatum told Chris Haynes in an interview with The Bleacher Report. 

"Finals MVP or whatever, a champion is a champion. That's the goal. I want for my teammates what I want for myself. I want everybody to shine. There's enough attention for all of us. And so, I want everybody to give us theirs."

Tatum finished with a team-high 31 points in Game 3, but is shooting 35.6% from the field in the series so far, but he's also averaging 8.7 rebounds and 7.3 assists against the Mavericks.

While Tatum may not take home Finals MVP, we can all agree as long as the Celtics win the title the, All-NBA forward is more than happy once he'll be able to call himself a champion.

"I've been here before, and I know what it felt like to lose [in the Finals] and that was the worst feeling ever," Tatum told Haynes. "That was the worst summer I ever had. I made the All-Star team five times.

"I'm All-NBA first team year after year. The only thing they said I haven't done is win. I just vowed to myself that if I ever got back to the Finals, then I would literally do whatever I needed to do to ensure that we have a different outcome."

Brown would be the first to walk away with back-to-back Eastern Conference Finals MVP and NBA Finals MVP, as the Celtics look to wrap up their season over the Mavs Friday night. Game 4 tips-off from Dallas at 8:30 pm ET on ABC. 

 

Joel Pavón

Follow @Joe1_CSP



Photo used courtesy of The Associated Press