Jaylen Brown out vs. Rockets

The Celtics have officially ruled out Jaylen Brown tonight in Houston with left patella tendinopathy. He was initially listed as questionable yesterday against the Rockets, but with Boston on a road trip and in Charlotte tomorrow night, he’ll at least sit the front end of the back-to-back.

As previously noted, it’s a knee issue that hampered Brown last season during a west coast road trip.

We first learned of Brown’s knee issues back in February, when then-President of Basketball Operations Danny Ainge discussed the issue with 98.5 The SportsHub’s Toucher and Rich.

“It’s a very common thing among NBA players, tendinitis in that patella tendon. We’ll just keep tabs on it the best we can and try to get the best version of Jaylen that we can have,” Ainge said.

Coming off a ten-day quarantine after a positive COVID test, Brown scored a career-high 46 points in New York on Wednesday, but hit just three of his 13 shots in the home opening on Friday night in a blowout loss to the visiting Raptors. It’s unknown whether or not his knee was hurting two days ago, but before the Knicks game, Brown said he was feeling “awesome” and the healthiest he’s been in a long time.

With Brown out, look for Romeo Langford to replace him in the starting lineup. Langford started the three preseason games in Brown’s absence to the league’s health and safety protocols. He’s continued his hot shooting from training camp and hit 4 of his 6 three-point attempts in the first two regular season games.