Former Cal Star Jaylen Brown Will Face Warriors After Missing Past 3 Celtics' Games

Teams that dueled in the NBA Finals will square off Thursday night in Boston.

Former Cal star Jaylen Brown is expected to be back in the lineup for the Boston Celtics on Thursday night, just in time for a rematch vs. the reigning NBA champion Golden State Warriors.

Brown has missed the past three games because of a right adductor strain but the 26-year-old shooting guard was back at practice Wednesday and pronounced himself healthy and ready to go.

“Feeling good,” Brown told reporters in Boston. “We’ll see how I feel after this today. Got a good workout in, good lift, got some live action going. Got moving a little bit. See if there’s any soreness but I think I’m all right, think I’m good. So I’ll be looking forward to (Thursday).”

Tipoff is 4:30 p.m. PT on TNT.

Brown hasn’t played since scoring a season-high 41 points in last Wednesday’s win over the Pelicans. He said he doesn’t remember how he was injured but was “super sore” afterward, then got an MRI.

“Just to be kind of cautious, you know?” he said. “And I guess it came up there was a lot of fluid in there, like a Grade 1 strain or whatever, which I’ve experienced before in different places. So I just started the recovery process from there.

“I think the ultimate goal is to be healthy going into the playoffs. So any time something comes up, hamstring and the groin and all that type of stuff, it’s kind of hard to read sometimes. So I think the training staff did a good job of being a little bit more cautious.”

The Celtics, whose 33-12 record is the best in the NBA this season, lost to the Warriors 4 games to 2 in the 2022 Finals. Then Golden State beat them 123-107 in San Francisco on Dec. 10.

Brown averaged 23.5 points in the NBA Finals, including 34 in the decisive Game 6. He scored a team-best 31 points in the meeting last month, but Klay Thompson had 34 and Stephen Curry 32.

Brown said he thinks the Celtics were too tense for the most recent game against the Warriors, as if they had something six months after the NBA Finals.

“That whole series was intense. And then to lose obviously leaves a stain on everybody’s memory,” Brown said. “So you go into a new year and you’re reminded of all the pain that you might have (experienced), the disappointment. So you come out and want to overcome all of that. But the reality is you remember it, you learn from it and you grow from it but you let it go at the same time. And you move forward.

“We’re not the same team as last year. They’re not the same team as last year. Some of us are not the same players we were last year. I’m not the same player I was last year.”

Brown is clearly better, with career-bests in scoring (27.2 points), rebounds (7.2) and field-goal accuracy (49.8 percent). He has scored 30 points or more in 14 of the 42 games he’s played this season.

Brown said the Celtics shouldn’t be reflecting too much on past games, but need to use the experience to move forward.

“You take what you learned, you be ready, you be aware, you be prepared and you apply your work ethic and what you worked on to the game,” he said.

Cover photo of former Cal star Jaylen Brown with Celtics teammate Al Horford by Bob DeChiara, USA Today

Follow Jeff Faraudo of Cal Sports Report on Twitter: @jefffaraudo