Jaylen Brown received “pain management injections” in his injured right knee to prepare for the Celtics’ postseason run, according to a report Saturday from ESPN’s Ramona Shelburne.
Brown, who’s been dealing with a bone bruise and what the team calls a “right knee impingement,” sat out six of Boston’s last 16 games, including each of the last two. When he has played, he’s been on a minutes restriction. Brown has not topped 30 minutes since the Celtics’ March 12 loss to the Oklahoma City Thunder and logged just 22 in his last two appearances.
Earlier this month, Brown said he had a plan in place to be as healthy as possible for the playoffs. He is expected to be available when Boston’s first-round series opens next weekend, per ESPN’s report.
“I’ve had to come to grips that every night, I’m not going to feel my normal self,” he said after tallying 24 points and nine rebounds in a blowout loss to the Miami Heat. “But that doesn’t mean I still can’t make plays and things like that. So it’s just something that we are working through. Today was a good step forward. I’ve got some stuff lined up with the medical staff in order to be and feel better come playoffs. But as for now, just mentally working through not feeling great, but still able to find ways to be effective, I guess.”
As for why he played through what he’s described as a painful injury, Brown said he wanted to hone his game to be effective despite physical limitations that could linger into the playoffs. He’s also watched film of former Celtics star Paul Pierce to study how to find his shooting spots while “playing at a certain pace.”
Brown was highly productive in the Celtics’ win over the Phoenix Suns last Friday (31 points, 10-of-16 shooting, five rebounds, three assists, one turnover in 28 minutes) but much less so in Tuesday’s overtime victory over the New York Knicks, in which he did not play after the third quarter (six points, 2-of-8 shooting, five rebounds, one assist, three turnovers in 22 minutes).
“I think pain is definitely a physical thing, but it’s also a mental thing,” Brown said after the Suns game. “So Joe (Mazzulla) has allowed me, even though my team physically can see maybe I’m in a bit of pain, that they trust me to go out there and I can control my body and still be able to make plays and mentally be able to kind of push through it.
“I think that’s going to be something I’m going to have to have in my back pocket, so I’ve been just utilizing these games in order to feel things out. Things will get better, I’m sure, but if they don’t, I still have a good feel for where my baseline is at and stuff like that. Because there’s no guarantee, honestly, that rest is going to make anything better. I wish it would, but it’s kind of the cards that are laid out.”
The Celtics sat their top six players, including Brown, for Wednesday’s loss to the Orlando Magic, which came on the second night of a back-to-back. Brown then was the only Boston regular who did not play in Friday’s 130-94 victory over the Charlotte Hornets. The Celtics are expected to sit most, if not all, of their regulars for Sunday’s regular-season finale against Charlotte at TD Garden.
Boston, which will enter the playoffs as the No. 2 seed in the Eastern Conference, will face either Orlando or Atlanta in the opening round, pending the outcome of Tuesday’s 7-vs.-8 play-in game. The Magic and Hawks both went 2-1 against the Celtics this season, with Atlanta winning twice at TD Garden, but lag far behind the C’s in most statistical metrics, including net rating (Boston is second behind OKC; Orlando and Atlanta are 17th and 19th, respectively).