And… exhale. The long-running national nightmare is over for the Celtics, and fans can stop speculating and worrying as Jaylen Brown is officially off the injury report and ready to play on Monday night in Atlanta after missing the team’s last two games.
Brown has been an iron man for Boston this season, carrying the team to one of the more improbable records in the league. A lot of players and personnel in the organization deserve credit, but none more than Jaylen, who has raised his game to a new level this season and taken on a massive burden.
Never did he raise his game more than on Wednesday night when he outduelled Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and helped lead the Celtics to their most impressive win of the season over the defending champions, the Thunder.
JB's achilles tendinitis caused a major scare
So, needless to say, some alarm bells went off when JB was ruled out for Friday night’s game against the Hawks with an extremely specific and concerning designation of left achilles tendinitis.
Still, even with the designation, it seemed like a sensible rest day after the effort he put in against an extremely physical OKC team. But concerns were not eased when he was back on the injury report the next day, only to be ruled out for a second straight game in Charlotte on Sunday.
For a guy who hasn’t missed consecutive games all season to suddenly pop up with tendinitis, with only a few weeks until the playoffs, was a major cause for concern, but luckily, it appears as if there is no reason to panic, and this was all part of the plan.
Jaylen's "injury" now seems more like load management
With a Sunday/Monday back-to-back, the team clearly decided to give each of the Jays a day off, with Tatum playing on Sunday night in Charlotte, and now Brown is set to play on Monday night in his hometown of Atlanta.
Crisis averted. All is right in the world again.
We have no way of knowing if this was something or nothing, but it’s still a scary reminder of how things can go off the rails at any minute. Other than the Tatum injury, the Celtics have been extremely fortunate with health this season, and that consistency in the lineup has helped them have this great season.
Luckily, it seems like this was just a scare, and hopefully, JB was getting some strategic extra rest ahead of a trip to the ATL, where he loves to play. The Celtics should continue to manage their stars over the next couple of weeks and make sure they are fully healthy and ready to go once the real games begin.