Jaylen Brown didn’t exactly look like himself during his 23 minutes of play against the Houston Rockets, which could actually be good news for the Celtics.
If he’s dropping 19 points on 6-13 shooting (including 3-6 from 3) when he’s not entirely Jaylen Brown, then imagine what he might be at 100%.
“He still doesn’t feel normal normal,” Ime Udoka said after the blowout win, “But to have him back in that third quarter and see what he did was a great sign.”
All he did in the third was break the game open. It was still a 12-point game with just under eight minutes on the clock, but Brown scored 10 points in 1:05 to push the lead to 22. Yeah, the Rockets made their token challenge to start the fourth, and yes, the Celtics certainly were complicit, but Brown’s explosion was where the game turned.
“The bigger thing was just for him to get kind of his legs underneath him, feel confidence moving on the court,” Al Horford said. “Timing, some things defensively, he’ll start to pick those up again. It is different when you go from not playing to playing, but I felt like he responded well and he had that third quarter that was a really nice stretch.”
Brown missed eight games with his hamstring injury. When you add one missed game from earlier this season, that’s half of the team’s 18 games so far. The reports last week felt optimistic for an earlier return, which is something Brown wanted.
“I love this game, and I believe in our unit. I’m definitely itching to get out there,” Brown said after the game. “I thought I would be able to come back a little bit earlier. But it was the right call, especially with the history of it. Going forward you want to make sure you have everything on track so you don’t have any more issues. I think that’s a smart plan.”
Just because Brown returned in this game, it doesn’t necessarily mean his issues are over. In fact, Brown struck a bit of a sour tone after the win, noting that the tightness returned as he was playing. That does put his status for the Wednesday game against Brooklyn in some doubt.
“I don’t want to miss any more games than I have to, definitely want to be out there,” he said “But at the same time just making sure I’m not putting myself at risk down the line here. Just trusting the medical staff. They were the ones really pushing for me to come back Monday. I felt tightness when the game started, a little bit. That’s where I felt a little bit. But I didn’t feel anything until prior to the game starting.”
Brown says that tightness got no better or worse during the game, which he says is a “great sign.” Still, he clearly made no guarantee about his availability moving forward.
On the plus side, the team is used to playing without him right now, so if he needs another day to make sure he’s fully recovered, his teammates can go back to the Jaylen-free plan.
“Josh (Richardson) wasn’t here tonight but Josh has been playing great. Dennis (Schroder) has been playing out of his mind,” ‘Brown said. “We’ve got a lot of guys that are contributing consistently. Grant (Williams) can shoot the ball excellent right now, and we’re gonna need that. I’m starting to see us move in the right direction. We’ve got to stay consistent defensively, but the potential for this group is really good, so we’ve just got to keep building on it.”
Step one is Wednesday, with or without Brown in the mix. The Celtics have marched steadily up the standings this month, recovering from their poor start and putting together performances that better match our expectations.
But expectations are not something Brown wants to get into right now. His return gave the Celtics a glimpse of who they were and can be, but there’s a long way to go for both him and the team. Brown didn’t want to over-promise anything with his own health after the game, and he did the same when it comes to his teams'.
“I think we got the potential to come out and play against Brooklyn, and play well,” he said. “I don't want to put too many expectations on the group. We've just got to come out and play basketball like we've been doing, and take it one game at a time. I'm looking forward to the next one, looking forward to putting everything together, and I think our potential is day-to-day. Let's focus on the next game.”