The Boston Celtics locked in the second seed in the Eastern Conference well ahead of the playoffs. Regaining health should be one of the most important elements to focus on for this team with about three weeks to go before the first round of the playoffs starting on April 19.

Jaylen Brown has openly said during postgame press conferences that his knee injury is a new type of injury to deal with, both physically and mentally. This is what Brown said postgame on Wednesday after playing the Phoenix Suns, his first game back after missing the previous two games:

“Just battling injury, just mentally making sure your confidence and your body is still aligned with the game and stuff like that. So that’s pretty much it. I’m still working my way back, just building up. I’ve been on a minutes restriction but still just making the right steps. My body still doesn’t feel 100%, but today was a good step in the right direction.”

On Saturday, in San Antonio, Brown took only nine shots, finishing 6-for-9 from the field and 1-for-4 from behind the arc. It’s visibly obvious that Brown is struggling to maneuver around the court and he’s limited in more ways than just his minutes restrictions.

There isn’t much left to play for in the regular season as a team. Brown should be focused on how he can regain his health and strength to better help his team in the playoffs when the games start to matter more.

That said, it seems like Brown is playing to get to 65-games to qualify for All-NBA honors in one way or another. Dating back a couple of years now, Brown openly said that he wanted to make All-NBA Defense, and that’s a goal that is still on his mind despite not mentioning it in a while.

Brown is averaging 22.4 points, 5.9 rebounds, 4.6 assists, and 1.2 blocks per game on 46/32/76 shooting splits this season. He’s setting career-highs with assists and offensive rebounds (1.4 per game).

He’s played in 59-games and needs to play in at least six of the Celtics’ last eight games to reach the qualifying 65-games for All-NBA, which just doesn’t seem wise at this point in the season.

This is head coach Joe Mazzulla talking during his postgame press conference on the process of managing Brown’s injury— is it more of just trusting that he’s doing the right thing or is there a program he’s following? Mazzulla left it in the hands of Brown and the training staff:

“You trust him, you trust the sports science team, you trust the trainers, you trust him and he takes care of his body and he’s doing everything he can to be available, and he takes pride in that. So just constant communication and constant trust with him and with the staff.”

At this point, someone is going to have to step in and sit him down for a stretch to regain his health before the playoffs. Whether that be Mazzulla or Brad Stevens, but someone needs to take the decision to play out of his hands and force him to take rest days.

This is a similar conversation that is often had about Jayson Tatum’s rest periods and that he should be more load-managed than he is. But it’s Tatum that says otherwise and chooses to play.

It’s great that Boston’s two franchise guys want to play in every game possible, but it’s more important to be available in the playoffs than it is for a meaningless game in March when the focus should be on the playoffs.

At this point, the only thing Boston needs for the playoffs is a healthy team. We’re starting to see players get the rest they need and to also manage some injuries that have accrued over the court of the season.

Payton Pritchard missed the last game with a hip injury, Jrue Holiday with his mallet finger and shoulder, Al Horford’s big toe, Sam Hauser’s lower back, and Tatum’s ankle. This is the time to take advantage of the time to rest and prep for the playoffs.

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