April 13: Celtics head coach Joe Mazzulla confirmed on Sunday that Brown has received pain management injections for his right knee, per Ken Powtak of The Associated Press.
“Just part of the rehab process for him to get back to be his absolute best,” Mazzulla said. “He’s continuing to take care of himself and put himself in great position to be ready for the postseason.”
Asked whether he’s confident Brown will be available when the playoffs get underway, Mazzulla replied, “A hundred percent.”
April 12: Celtics star Jaylen Brown was given pain management injections this week as he continues to try to find an answer for his aching right knee, league sources tell Ramona Shelburne of ESPN.
Brown suffered a bone bruise several weeks ago, and it has become more painful recently, according to Shelburne. He was limited to 22 minutes and barely played after halftime in Boston’s overtime victory at New York on Tuesday. He sat out Wednesday’s game at Orlando, ensuring that he won’t reach the 65-game minimum to be considered for postseason awards, and he has been declared out for Sunday’s regular season finale against Charlotte.
Shelburne notes that teammate Kristaps Porzingis cautioned Brown against trying to do too much after Tuesday’s outing.
“He’s a tough dude,” Porzingis said. “He always preaches his warrior mindset. He lives by it. But to what extent do we need that right now? Maybe he needs to take care of it and make sure he’s going to be ready for the most important moment. I think we need to encourage him to make sure he does everything he needs to prepare to get it healthy and to prepare for what’s going to come.”
The Celtics had Brown on a minutes restriction for a while, but he worked his way back up to about 30 minutes per night prior to this week, per Brian Robb of MassLive. Barring a setback, he’s expected to be ready for the start of Boston’s first-round playoff series next weekend.
“We just got what we needed to get out of him as he continues to push himself and test himself,” coach Joe Mazzulla said after the Knicks game. “We still got games left so we got what we needed to get, what we needed to see and we’ll just continue to move forward.”
Brown, a four-time All-Star and the reigning MVP of the Eastern Conference Finals and NBA Finals, is in the midst of another productive season. He’s averaging 22.2 points, 5.8 rebounds and 4.5 assists in 63 games with .463/.324/.764 shooting numbers.
Robb points out that Brown has chosen to play through the pain numerous times, even though the Celtics have been virtually locked into the No. 2 seed for several weeks. Brown explained his reasoning after a game last week.
“I’m hoping to feel better and better,” he said. “But there’s no guarantee that rest or anything like that is going to make this thing better, so kind of figuring it out and going through it and getting ready for the playoffs.”
A bit concerning that Brown is getting mixed up with drugs. You’d think especially with the fentanly crisis he’d be a bit more careful. Helen had a friend who got hooked on pills it was ugly. Don’t wish that on anyone…
Jalen should rest. Why mess around with a knee now. Better pray this doesn’t backfire. They don’t need him for 1st round.
Get well player.
Celtics played everyone against Knicks. Should of lost that game. Went OT. I guess it was important for them to win. Brunson had just come back. I like they showed Knicks respect. Jalen Brown played 22 mins scored 6 pts.
The starters don’t need to play 40 minutes each. Hauser, Pritchard, Horford, Kornett, and even Schierman have proven they can play significant minutes and contribute. Mazzulla has always relied too much on starters. Everyone says how deep their roster is. Play them.
NBA drug test him and everyone else. Come on silver do your job
Is this the next case of “forced to play in the playoffs and ruined career” for the Celtics? I mean IT and Robert Williams already went through this. If I am Jaylen Brown, I am sitting out until I am 110%.
Bill Walton is the example for that
Funny thing about those pain management shots to the knees… after getting them, you can walk around and your knees feel MUCH better! But, as soon as you go back to doing what made your knees hurt in the first place, the pain comes back pretty quickly.