Did Celtics Mishandle Jaylen Brown’s Nagging Knee Injury?

All indications are that Jaylen Brown will be on the court Sunday for the Boston Celtics when they open up the playoffs.

It looks like Brown might not be playing at 100%, though.

Brown dealt with a nagging right knee injury throughout the regular season and the ailment worsened over time. It got bad enough that Brown needed to receive pain management injections in his knee last week, according to ESPN’s Ramona Shelbourne.

Brown still played in 63 games — two short of the minimum to qualify for the NBA’s end-of-season awards — despite the injury. He even suited up in seven of eight games from late March to early April before taking a seat on the bench for Boston’s final three regular-season contests.

But with Brown’s health in question, NESN’s Travis Thomas explained on “Boston Has Entered The Chat” that the Celtics should have handled Brown with more care.

“My thing is like, Jaylen Brown already got paid. Jaylen Brown is a champion. Jaylen Brown is a Finals MVP. Can we just get him healthy?” Thomas said. “I don’t think it should have ever got to the point where he has to get these pain injections in his knee. He should have been resting the whole month.”

The Celtics didn’t have much to play for over the last month since they were essentially locked into the No. 2 seed in the Eastern Conference.

Brown still got his playing time, though, albeit in limited minutes. He averaged 26.1 minutes per game in his last eight regular-season games, which was down from the 35.5 minutes he averaged prior to that.

The Celtics will now need to keep an eye on Brown and hope he holds up for a playoff run that is expected to be far more grueling than last year. Boston begins its postseason against either the Orlando Magic or Atlanta Hawks on Sunday at TD Garden.

You can watch all episodes of “Boston Has Entered The Chat” on YouTube and Spotify.