Jaylen Brown and the Boston Celtics had a lot to prove against the Oklahoma City Thunder on Wednesday night. The Celtics needed to prove they could beat a championship-level team, while Brown needed to prove he could hang with NBA frontrunner Shai Gilgeous-Alexander.
The Celtics succeeded on both fronts. Boston overcame an early double-digit deficit to defeat the reigning champs by double digits, while Brown went toe-to-toe with SGA by scoring 31 points, defending him in the fourth quarter and even beating him at his own game.
On Thursday's episode of "First Take," NBA insider Brian Windhorst revealed his main takeaways from the Celtics' win and Brown's performance.
"The Celtics attacked this game knowing it meant more." 👏@WindhorstESPN breaks down the Boston Celtics' huge win over the Oklahoma City Thunder and Jaylen Brown's MVP case 🏆 pic.twitter.com/YnVncMj8gH
— First Take (@FirstTake) March 26, 2026
"The Celtics attacked this game knowing that it meant more," Windhorst said. "The Celtics feel like they have overachieved, and they've done an amazing job and they haven't gotten the attention... This was a high-level challenge game."
As for Brown, Windhorst came away impressed with his outstanding showing.
"Jaylen Brown played this game to use Shai's game against Shai... He attacked him," Windhorst added. "Probably Shai is going to win that MVP award. But Jaylen wanted to let it be known that he could meet him where he lives and do it just as well or better than him, and that is what I got from this game."
Gilgeous-Alexander is still favored to win the MVP award and likely will, but Brown has proven in both of his games against the Thunder this year that he can guard the league's best player and score on the league's best defense.
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