Jaylen Brown said the cut on his shooting hand split open while scoring a game-high 29 points in Celtics’ Game 1 win
“It split open during the game, but it’s fine now.”
Jaylen Brown had a minor scare in a game that didn’t give the Celtics many in their 112-99 Game 1 victory over the Hawks.
In his first game back since suffering a cut on his shooting hand, the Celtics’ star wing said that his cut split open during Saturday’s game.
“It’s fine,” Brown said of his hand, which had some wrapping around it when he spoke with reporters. “It split open during the game, but it’s fine now.”
Brown continued to downplay the wound during his press conference.
“I think it’s going to be all right,” Brown said. “I guess I’ll take a look at it tomorrow.”
Brown suffered the cut when cleaning up the glass from a broken vase when he was watering his plants prior to the Celtics’ final two games of the regular season, which concluded on April 9. The cut was suffered in the web between Brown’s pointer finger and middle finger on his right hand, according to ESPN’s broadcast of Saturday’s game.
Brown told ESPN’s Ros Gold-Onwude that he had the five stitches for the cut removed Thursday. He also told Gold-Onwude that the cut hurt when he was catching and shooting the ball in practice, bandaging multiple fingers together to help reduce the pain.
Despite the injury, though, no one had a bigger impact on the stat sheet than Brown. He scored a game-high 29 points on 12-of-23 shooting and went 3-for-3 from the free-throw line. He also grabbed a game-high 12 rebounds.
Brown said he was able to manage the pain throughout the game, but acknowledged he had to put in a little extra work for that to happen, too.
“It’s fine, especially with the adrenaline of the game you kind of just get it going,” Brown said. “But at times throughout the game I had to readjust it and stuff like that. I got a lot of padding on it. So, it’s a different feel shooting the ball. Just adjusting and adapting to the game, that’s it.”
Despite having game-highs in points and rebounds, Brown struggled a bit in controlling the ball. He had a game-high six turnovers to just three assists, something Brown said he has to be in better control of in the upcoming games.
“It’s a constant adjustment, just trying to get a good grip of the ball,” Brown said. “I had six turnovers tonight, so I definitely got to clean that up. That’s really it.”
While Brown had some self-criticism for his play, his coach didn’t have much criticism for him.
“I thought he was trying to just figure out how to play with it at first,” Celtics coach Joe Mazzulla said of Brown trying to manage his injury. “Just had to change the Band-Aid, I believe. Thought he played well. Thought his shot selection was good. I thought he was intentional on the defensive end and I thought he did a great job of being locked in on both ends of the floor.”
Brown dealing with the cut on his hand was probably the greatest bit of adversity the Celtics dealt with in Game 1. The Celtics held a 30-point lead at halftime and led by as much as 32 points.
But Brown isn’t resting on his laurels going into Game 2.
“It does nothing,” Brown said when asked about what holding such a big lead does for his confidence. “Each game is its own story. We expect to get their best shot in the next game. Can’t take a team for granted. We let them get a little more comfortable in the second half, so I expect them in the next game to be a little bit more prepared. So, we’ve got to be a little bit more prepared as well.”
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