Celtics’ Jaylen Brown Gets MVP Label From Bulls Head Coach Billy Donovan

The Boston Celtics secured a 115-101 win over the Chicago Bulls on Monday, January 5, jumping to second in the Eastern Conference as a result. Joe Mazzulla’s team, coming off the back of a four-game West Coast swing, was far from at its best.

Nevertheless, the Celtics found a way to win what became a scrappy game. A significant part of the Celtics’ performance was their work on the offensive glass, securing 20 offensive rebounds and turning that into 26 second-chance points.

Anfernee Simons also enjoyed a stellar shooting night after struggling in the first half. He ended the game with 27 points, 3 rebounds and 3 assists, knocking down 9-of-16 from the field, which included 8-of-14 shooting from deep.

During his postgame news conference, Bulls’ head coach, Billy Donovan, spoke glowingly about the Celtics roster, even labelling Jaylen Brown as a potential MVP candidate.

“I’ve got a lot of respect for Jaylen,” Donovan said. “You know, he’s obviously playing at probably an MVP level, or at least in consideration. Pritchard, I’ve always had great respect for. White, the same thing. Hauser can really shoot it. They have a really, really good, high-IQ team, shooting team. I think the pickup of Simons coming off the bench has given them a lot of firepower.”

“Tatum obviously, you know, is elite offensively,” Donovan continued. “He can score a lot of different ways, but I think what happens is when you have a big-time scorer that goes out like that, it doesn’t necessarily fall just on one guy. Everybody kind of shares in that, so to speak. And they’ve been, all year long ,pretty elite offensively. They’ve got the fourth-best offense, you know.”

After a stellar 50-point game against the LA Clippers on Saturday, January 3, Brown was quiet against the Bulls. Nevertheless, he still played a role in helping Boston secure another win. The Celtics will be back in action on Wednesday, January 7, when the 24-12 Denver Nuggets roll into town.