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The Boston Celtics<\/a> walked into Los Angeles and delivered a statement. After a commanding 111-89 win over the Lakers<\/a> on Sunday night, LeBron James<\/a> made sure the spotlight stayed on Jaylen Brown<\/a>.<\/p>\n Brown finished with 32 points<\/a>, eight rebounds, seven assists and three steals, controlling the game on both ends, NESN reports. But the numbers only told part of the story. In the locker room afterward, James publicly questioned why Brown\u2019s name does not carry more weight in the MVP race.<\/p>\n \u201cThis whole MVP thing, I don\u2019t understand why his name is not getting talked about some as well,\u201d James told reporters, per ESPN\u2019s Dave McMenamin. \u201cLike, nobody gave them a shot to start the season. And he\u2019s averaging what, 30? Just under 30? It\u2019s a popularity contest sometimes, I tell you.\u201d<\/p>\n LeBron Challenges the MVP Conversation<\/p>\n James framed Brown\u2019s season around context. Boston entered the year with skepticism swirling after roster turnover and the absence of Jayson Tatum. Many projected regression. Instead, the Celtics improved to 37-19 and climbed to second in the Eastern Conference.<\/p>\n \u201cI think he just used the motivation of a lot of people just saying that they\u2019re going to have a down year,\u201d James said. \u201cThe whole championship team pretty much is kind of revamped, and he used it as motivation to keep them afloat. They\u2019re playing great basketball, and it\u2019s because of him and the rest of those guys. He\u2019s taken that next step.\u201d<\/p>\n James is absolutely correct with his assessment. Brown has a solid cast of support, players that anytime would love to have as role guys, but Brown is the fuel making sure the Celtics train gets to where it\u2019s going.<\/p>\n Brown entered Sunday averaging 29.2 points and 7.0 rebounds per game. Still, he placed sixth in ESPN\u2019s latest straw poll conducted by Tim Bontemps. Shai Gilgeous-Alexander<\/a> dominated the voting with 78 first-place votes, while Nikola Joki\u0107<\/a> followed with 18. None of the 100 respondents ranked Brown higher than third.<\/p>\n The gap between production and recognition clearly stood out to James.<\/p>\n Brown Responds With Confidence, Not Distraction<\/p>\n Brown did not campaign<\/a> for himself, per Bleacher Report. He leaned into identity instead of narrative.<\/p>\n \u201cWho I am, I feel like I\u2019m the best two-way player in the world,\u201d Brown said. \u201cI play both ends on the court night-to-night. I\u2019m available, which is hard to do. I\u2019m a leader. Help lead my team, empower my team to come out and play confidently, stuff that doesn\u2019t always show up on the analytics. And I\u2019m a winner. I come out and try to win every single night.\u201d<\/p>\n He also reflected on his first NBA start during the 2016-17 season against James and the Cleveland Cavaliers<\/a>. Brown remembered James pulling him aside that night. Years later at All-Star Weekend, they revisited that moment.<\/p>\n \u201cWe talked about that at the All-Star Game,\u201d Brown said. \u201c\u2018You remember that 10 years ago?\u2019 And he smiles like, \u2018Of course, you know, I\u2019m not surprised at anything you\u2019re doing right now. So just keep proving people wrong.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n With more than a month remaining in the regular season, the MVP picture can still shift. Brown faces steep competition, but his production and team success continue to build a compelling case. James made one thing clear, the conversation should include him.<\/p>\n \n\t\t\tBurtland Dixon<\/a> Burtland Dixon is a sports journalist covering the NBA and athlete culture for Heavy.com. A former Division II athlete turned journalist, he offers a unique blend of locker room perspective and storytelling expertise. He has more than eight years of experience in digital media and previously served as an Associate Editor at ClutchPoints, with additional bylines at Idolator, Trend Chaser, and Buzznet. Burtland is based between California and New York. Instagram: @showmi_more More about Burtland Dixon<\/a>\t\t<\/p>\n \n\t\t\tMore Heavy on Lakers\n\t\t<\/p>\n \n\t\t\t\tLoading more stories\n\t\t<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Getty The Boston Celtics walked into Los Angeles and delivered a statement. After a commanding 111-89 win over…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":620493,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3766],"tags":[7,45,75,3798,46,6],"class_list":["post-620492","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-boston-celtics","tag-basketball","tag-boston","tag-boston-celtics","tag-bostonceltics","tag-celtics","tag-nba"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/116121713053955538","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/620492","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=620492"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/620492\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/620493"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=620492"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=620492"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=620492"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}