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The Boston Celtics were without maybe their top player for Wednesday’s Game 2 versus the Orlando Magic. Jayson Tatum missed the first playoff game of his career with a wrist injury, but Boston still protected its home court behind a herculean performance from Jaylen Brown.
Brown notched a game-high 36 points while shooting 12-of-19 from the field, 5-of-7 from 3-point range and 7-of-8 from the free-throw line. He also contributed 10 rebounds, five assists and a steal in Boston’s nine-point victory.
After Brown put the Celtics on his back and helped them take a 2-0 series lead over the Magic, former NBA forward Chandler Parsons said that Brown would be the best player on over half of the NBA’s 30 teams and even named some squads that are in the 2025 NBA Playoffs.
“For sure it’s more than half,” Parsons said.
Parsons cited the Magic and Houston Rockets as two of the teams that Brown would be the best player on. Both those teams are in the playoffs this season.
Paolo Banchero might just be Orlando’s top talent, and he’s had a big series against Boston so far. He’s scored over 30 points in each of the first two games of the series. Franz Wagner is also becoming a star for Orlando and deserves to be in the conversation.
As for the Rockets, Jalen Green and Alperen Sengun are some notable candidates when it comes to who their top player is. Green is a gifted scorer, while Sengun is a nightly double-double threat.
Brown sometimes lives in the shadow of Tatum because of how great the former Duke University standout is, but the former was maybe the Celtics’ best player during their title run last year. He earned Eastern Conference Finals MVP and Finals MVP honors.
Despite being an incredibly talented offensive player, Brown has never been a definitive No. 1 scoring option during his NBA career, so it would be interesting to see how he would fare in an even larger offensive role than the one he has in Boston.
He has averaged as many as 26.6 points per game in an NBA season, so he’s already proven that he can score the ball with the best of them.
Brown will attempt to help the Celtics to a commanding 3-0 series lead against Orlando when Game 3 starts up on Friday.
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