Boston Celtics forward Jaylen Brown out for the rest of the 2020-21 NBA season

The Boston Celtics have been perennial playoff contenders over the past few years. In fact, the 2019-20 campaign marked the third time in which the team advanced to the conference finals in four seasons.

However, thanks to injuries to various players this season, the Boston Celtics have had their fair share of struggles. For example, they have dropped six of their last 10 games. This includes an embarrassing 121-99 loss to the Chicago Bulls on May 7 and a 130-124 loss against the Miami Heat on Sunday.

On the heels of their second straight loss, the Celtics find themselves in the No. 7 spot. Even more important, they trail the Heat (the No. 6 seed) by two games in the conference playoff race.

As if that wasn’t bad enough, the Celtics suffered yet another blow on Monday. All-star forward Jaylen Brown will miss the rest of the season due to a wrist injury.

“This past weekend Celtics forward Jaylen Brown was diagnosed with a torn scapholunate ligament in his left wrist,” a Celtics statement reads. “Brown is expected to have the torn ligament surgically repaired later this week, and will be out for the remainder of the 2020-21 season.”

For obvious reasons, this recent development could not have come at a worse time for the Celtics as Brown was putting together a solid campaign. He is averaging 24.7 points per contest while shooting 48.4 percent from the floor. Both marks are career-highs.

Additionally, Brown has also posted career-bests in assists (3.4), 3-point shooting (39.7 percent), and free-throw shooting as well (76.4 percent). His solid all-around play contributed to him earning his first All-Star selection this season.

Brown had missed each of the last three games with a right ankle sprain. And the Celtics were 1-2 in those contests.

The good news is the Boston Celtics can still make up some ground in the playoff race. They will play the Heat again on Tuesday night. Furthermore, two of their remaining three games after that are against the Cleveland Cavaliers and the Minnesota Timberwolves. Both of these games are very winnable, at least on paper.

The Celtics entered the season with hopes of making another deep postseason. Now, with one of the team’s key contributors out the rest of the way, that will be a difficult task, to say the least.