“We’re getting there. It’s a long journey, it’s a long season. Taking care of your body is important.”

Celtics guard Jaylen Brown returned to action Sunday night against the Bucks after missing four games with a lingering hip flexor issue.

He scored 14 points in 37 minutes on 4-for-13 shooting. While it wasn’t his strongest shooting performance, Brown said he’s feeling an improvement.

“It felt better today. Felt better physically,” Brown said. “Not all the way there yet, but was able to throw my weight around and explode a little bit better. So, I feel better today. We’re getting there. It’s a long journey, it’s a long season. Taking care of your body is important.”

Brown said he realized he felt healthy enough to play the night before Sunday’s contest.

In general, Brown has been durable over the course of his career. He played in 70 regular-season games ahead of last year’s championship run, the most he has played since 2019.

He had back-to-back seasons in 2020 and 2021 when he was limited to 57 and 58 games respectively, but he has played in 66 or more in ever other season of his nine-year career.

Brown said he knew ahead of time that he wanted to make the effort to play against Milwaukee, whom the Celtics have had several playoff clashes with over in recent years.

“I try not to miss too many games. My presence out there for my team on both offense and defense is important,” Brown said. “This is a big win on the road that we needed so I knew I wanted to make myself available for today and I knew it was going to be a challenge on both sides of the ball physically.”

“We took their best punch tonight,” he added. “They came out, Giannis had an incredible game. Their teammates shot the ball well and we still figured out how to win, so I’m clad this was my return game.”

Brown said he isn’t sure of the exact moment that his hip flexor became aggravated.

“It’s been bothering me since training camp,” Brown said. “I had been playing through it and it didn’t really get better while I was playing so we decided it was best to get a little bit of rest and get off it. I think that did me well, because today I felt a little bit more of that burst. I felt a little bit stronger physically and able to go both direction than I felt over the last couple days, so it’s something to build on.”