What happened to Jaylen Brown's face? Taking closer look at his injury

Boston Celtics star wing Jaylen Brown had a very productive first-round series against the Atlanta Hawks, despite playing through a face injury.

The star wings’ injury occurred during a regular-season game against the Philadelphia 76ers on Feb. 8. That happened when Brown collided with co-star Jayson Tatum underneath the basket and sustained a facial fracture.

Brown missed just four games due to the injury before returning on Feb. 23 against the Indiana Pacers. He has been wearing a mask during gameplay to protect his face since then.

According to Brown, he doesn’t have to wear a mask anymore. However, he has opted to continue doing so as a precautionary measure and that his mom wants him to:

"I think it's not fully healed. I think what they said, like, you got like six weeks until the cartilage starts to grow back, so you're, I guess, safe if you were to take another hit," Brown told NBC Sports Boston’s Abby Chin on March 26.

"But you still got like another six weeks before I guess it fully gets back to where it is or where it's supposed to be. So I guess technically, I got like a couple more days or I don't have to wear it anymore if I didn't want to. But if you wanna be safe, they say, you keep wearing it. My mom wants me to wear it, so I'll probably keep wearing it."

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How did Jaylen Brown fare in first round against Atlanta?

Boston Celtics star wing Jaylen Brown

Jaylen Brown was not hindered by his face injury in Round 1 against the Atlanta Hawks. He averaged 26.7 points, 5.3 rebounds, 3.0 assists, 1.2 steals and 2.8 3-pointers per game over six games, shooting a blistering 54.1% and 51.5% from the deep.

This is in line with how Brown performed in the regular season following his injury. He averaged 27.0 ppg, 6.5 rpg, 4.1 apg, 1.2 spg and 2.2 3pg on 50.0% shooting over 19 games post-injury.

After beating the Hawks 4-2, Brown and the second-seeded Celtics next take on the third-seeded Philadelphia 76ers in Round 2. Boston went 3-1 against Philly this season.

Game 1 takes place on Monday night in Boston.