Jaylen Brown trying to find right balance in his recovery from hamstring strain

The Boston Celtics haven’t dealt with many injury issues so far this season, an opposite theme compared to recent seasons. But the same can’t be said for Celtics star Jaylen Brown.

Brown suffered a right hamstring strain in last Thursday’s road win over the Miami Heat, which has kept him out of action since, but he feels he is progressing as he looks to make his return.

“In the Miami game toward the end of the third quarter, tried to explode off and kind of felt a little pull,” said Brown Wednesday after the team’s morning shootaround as he had already been ruled out for that night’s game versus the Toronto Raptors. “It’s Grade 1, so it’s nothing severe, but anybody who has had a hamstring injury knows they can be uncomfortable. Just working to get back, so I can be able to be with the team.”

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Celtics coach Ime Udoka told reporters Monday he expected Brown to be sidelined one to two weeks due to the ailment. Brown agreed with that timeline, but didn’t rule out the possibility of returning sooner as the Celtics host the defending NBA champion Milwaukee Bucks Friday night.

“I think it sounds about right,” Brown said. “It could be before then. Just based upon how today’s session went, tomorrow’s session goes and we go from there, assess from there. These things could last longer or heal up pretty quick.”

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To gauge when Brown, who has gone through on-court workouts, will be ready to come back, he said he first has to be without pain in his hamstring -- a box that can already be checked off -- and then see how the area recovers after testing it.

“Without pain at this point,” Brown said. “Still got some tightness, but no pain.”

A hamstring strain is something Brown said he dealt with before during the 2019 campaign just before the NBA season was shut down because of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Brown added this is the “lightest” hamstring injury he has sustained, but understands he needs to find the right balance in pushing himself to get back on the court and making sure he doesn’t aggravate the injury and jeopardize missing games in the future. Brown noted that at the start of his career, he might not have taken as careful of an approach.

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“Maybe I’d come back earlier than I was supposed to, especially earlier in my career, but I think every time I’ve had a hamstring injury I had to sit down for at least five or six days and then come back depending on the severity of it,” Brown said. “This one being a recurring injury, I want to make sure that I take the proper precaution to make sure that, one, I have my hamstring for the next 10, 15 years and, two, that this is not an issue going forward so I have to be away from the team.”

Brown is off to a spectacular start to his sixth NBA season, averaging a career-high 25.6 points in eight games played while shooting 49.3 percent from the floor. But dating back to last season, Brown has dealt with many speed bumps in his way as he transformed into an All-Star.

Brown suffered from lingering knee pain that caused him to miss time a season ago before tearing ligaments in his left wrist, which required surgery and held Brown out for Boston’s final 12 games, including the playoffs.

Then right before the start of this season, Brown tested positive for COVID-19 and was forced to isolate for 10 days before returning just prior to the season opener versus the New York Knicks, in which he poured in a career-best 46 points.

Now with the hamstring strain, the number of recent ailments have piled up for Brown, frustrating him to not be able to help a team he sees trending upward, even with a 4-6 record following a buzzer-beating loss to the Dallas Mavericks Saturday on a shot from Luka Doncic.

“I’m pissed that I have spent so much time away from the team, especially through COVID and quarantine and now with a hamstring injury so early,” Brown said. “We’re definitely building in the right direction. I loved our energy and our spirit in Dallas, especially in the second half. I thought we played well. Luka hit a tough shot. Nothing to hang our head.”

This article originally appeared on The Enterprise: Celtics star Jaylen Brown discusses his hamstring injury