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BOSTON – Celtics wing Jaylen Brown returned from a right hamstring strain Thursday night, and right away he put the impaired muscle to the test.
Thirty-six seconds after checking into Game 2 against the Philadelphia 76ers, Brown scrambled for a loose ball, picked it up at mid-court, ran full-speed ahead, euro-stepped around an opponent and blasted off for a rim-shaking dunk.
All the while, the crowd at TD Garden collectively held its breath.
“I did everything to kind of aggravate it,” Brown said of the first-quarter play. “I bent down, stopped, accelerated, picked up the ball and exploded up for the dunk. I probably made everybody a little nervous with that one.”
Everybody was nervous, except for Brown himself. Once he landed, the eager 21-year-old simply turned around and jogged back up the court just he normally would.
He was OK. And he was ready for more.
Brown would go on to play 25 minutes, tallying 13 points and four rebounds off the bench, while helping the C’s storm back from a 22-point first-half deficit to edge Philly for a 108-103 win.
“I knew I needed to help my team,” said Brown, whose Celtics now own a 2-0 advantage in the second-round series. “So, I came out, did the best I could, gave everything I had, and we came out with a W.”
Boston’s medical staff was initially on the fence about whether or not to let Brown play, but the second-year wing convinced them that he was feeling good enough to go.
“I wanted to play last game too,” Brown admitted. “But you don’t want to risk where you could potentially be out for the whole series and the rest of the Playoffs. You want to be smart about it. It’s an injury that takes a little bit of time, but if you focus, lock in on it, you can shorten that process.”
Brown had some convincing to do before Thursday night’s game, but his persistence paid off and the medical staff cleared him to play. Still, they approached his return with caution by not allowing him to play any more than 25 minutes.
“They felt like if he went above 25 that would’ve been a little bit more risky,” said C’s coach Brad Stevens. “But I think he felt pretty good.”
Brown’s first stint off the bench was fairly lengthy, lasting the final 7:14 of the first quarter. Looking back, he believes that playing a substantial number of minutes out of the gate was more beneficial than if he had played a short stint because it allowed him to loosen up the muscle over an extended period of time.
“I just appreciate the coaching staff for trusting me out there and trusting my word when I told them I was fine,” said Brown. “They kept me out there a little bit and I got warmer and warmer, and then I kind of got comfortable. After you get up and down the floor a few times, you start to feel better.”
Despite coming off the bench for the first time all season, it didn’t take long at all for Brown to catch up to speed and gain rhythm with his teammates.
He looked like his typical self, throwing down a trio of dunks and sinking a pair of 3-pointers, all while playing sound defense on the other end.
“I thought he played really hard,” said Stevens. “I thought that this series kind of hit him when he first got in the game because he was of coming back from an injury and he was kind of feeling himself out … But he made some huge plays for us.”
Brown said after the game that the hamstring was feeling “a little sore,” but added that as long as he takes care of it properly, he does not expect to miss any more games.
“I’ll get some treatment tomorrow, ice it down, and get ready for Game 3.”