Jaylen Brown throws gauntlet after Celtics trounce Cavs in Game 1

Last night, the Boston Celtics trounced the Cleveland Cavaliers, winning Game 1 120-95. Jaylen Brown led the Celtics in scoring with 32 points, Derrick White poured on 25 points of his own, and it's looking like the Celtics are taking control of this series pretty early. 

Following the Celtics' win, Brown's confidence was evident. During his postgame press conference, the Celtics star shared what every NBA team (hopefully) already knows.

"It's going to be tough for a team to beat us four times," Brown said. Careful not to get too ahead of himself, Brown added, "As long as we come out and we execute on both ends and we're the harder-playing team, I think we'll be fine." With a 5-1 record this postseason, it's safe to say that this has worked for the Celtics so far. 

After an impressive Game 1 performance, Brown told reporters he's excited to come out with the same mentality for Game 2. This postseason, Brown is shooting 54.5 percent from the field and averaging 24.3 points, both career-highs. So yeah, you can see why he's looking forward to Game 2.

Considering Boston hasn't lost more than two games in a row all season, Brown does make a valid point - it definitely might be tough to beat this Celtics squad four out of seven times in a series. Just ask the Miami Heat. They are the only team to beat the Celtics so far this postseason, and they had to hit a franchise playoff-record 23 3-pointers to even do so. Oh, and by the way, the Heat still only won that game by 10. So yeah...

The Boston Celtics' plus-11.3 point differential was the highest in the NBA this regular season. At plus-17.1, they currently have the best postseason point differential. Simply put, the Celtics are very good. In fact, according to Celtics play-by-play announcer Sean Grande, the Celtics have had more 30-point leads (15) this season than 10-point deficits. 

With Derrick White, Jayson Tatum, and Jaylen Brown all playing so well, it might not matter how focused Donovan Mitchell and the Cleveland Cavaliers are. In this case, they might just be outmatched.