The Boston Celtics are expected to get Jaylen Brown back in action Thursday night against the New York Knicks, Celtics head coach Brad Stevens said on his weekly appearance with 98.5 The Sports Hub’s Zolak & Bertrand.
“He should be able to go [Thursday] night based on yesterday’s practice,” Stevens, whose team has won three games in a row, said. “He looked good, he felt good, he went through the whole practice [with] no issues.”
The 22-year-old Brown has missed the last three games due to a sore back, and will return to the Celtics having averaged 11.1 points and 4.1 rebounds in 28:03 per night this season.
The Celtics will have to hope that some of the team’s recent shooting luck finds its way to the 6-foot-7 Brown, too, as he comes back to the team shooting a career-worst 39.8 percent this season (and 25.3 percent from deep, another career-low from the third-year pro).
It’s also believed that Brown will begin his night coming off the Celtic bench, though nothing is set in stone, according to Stevens.
“It’s all easy to come to conclusions when you’re winning three games in a row,” Stevens said of his lineup decisions, with or without Brown at his disposal. “I think that we have to put more than a week together before we feel like we’ve made set in stone conclusions. I think ultimately we have to play well for a month, we have to play well for two months. we’ve gotta show some more consistency than we’ve shown through the first two months of the season.
“We’ll continue to explore all options until we find that consistency.”
Options that once again involve the high-ceiling wing with game-changing athleticism.