Jaylen Brown’s hamstring injury did not limit him in Monday’s Celtics practice, according to head coach Joe Mazzulla.
Mazzulla said Brown was a full participant as Boston prepares for its regular-season opener Wednesday night against the Philadelphia 76ers at TD Garden.
“He went through practice today,” Mazzulla said. “We’ll just continue to see how he progresses. He was able to go today.”
Brown exited in the first quarter of last Wednesday’s preseason finale with what the team called left hamstring tightness. He did not return to the game and was held out of live drills during Friday’s practice.
Asked whether he’ll be able to suit up against the Sixers, the four-time All-Star replied: “We’ll see.”
“We’ll take it one day at a time,” Brown said after Monday’s session. “But as of now, I feel great.”
He downplayed the severity of his injury.
“I wasn’t too concerned,” he said. “I think it was nothing, so I was fine. Maybe a little tweak, but nothing crazy.”
Brown will be the Celtics’ No. 1 option this season while Jayson Tatum recovers from Achilles surgery, and his health will be vital to Boston’s success. The C’s went 15-4 in games Brown missed last season but now feature a much weaker supporting cast after losing Tatum to injury and Kristaps Porzingis, Jrue Holiday, Al Horford and Luke Kornet to offseason roster moves.
Head coach Joe Mazzulla is adopting a new approach to account for those losses, aiming to play much faster on offense and emphasize disruption and chaos on defense. To prepare for this drastic uptick in pace, the Celtics staged a grueling training camp filled with running and high-intensity drills.
The 28-year-old Brown, who’s entering his 10th season in Boston, said he feels like his body is in a good place coming out of camp.
“I feel good,” Brown said. “I think Joe’s done a great job of setting the tone, the pace, the energy, the style that we need to survive and the style that we need to play every single night. Obviously, we’re less talented than we have been before, less experienced than we have been before, so this is the style of basketball we have to play. We’e got to double down on it. We want to be successful. Think Joe did a good job of that. He’s, like, maybe been a little crazy, but a little crazy is needed at times. I’m OK with that. So you’ve got to be a little crazy if you want to win or you want to outperform people’s expectations.”
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