Jaylen Brown keeps showing up for the Celtics (28-17). The question now is how much longer Boston can reasonably ask him to.

With Jayson Tatum still sidelined as he continues rehabbing his surgically repaired Achilles, Brown has become the axis around which everything turns.

The offense. The leadership. The nightly expectation that he’ll not only score, but carry Boston through stretches where the margin for error is razor thin. It’s been admirable, necessary, and increasingly dangerous.

Saturday night in Chicago (23-22) felt like the clearest warning sign yet.

Brown poured in a game-high 33 points in a 114-111 loss to the Bulls, playing 37 minutes less than 24 hours after logging 46 in a double-overtime win in Brooklyn (12-31). He attacked relentlessly, battled through contact, and once again kept Boston within striking distance late. But there was a noticeable difference in how he moved. The burst wasn’t quite there. The lift came and went. And after the game, Brown didn’t try to hide it.

“I want to play, but at the same time, you’ve got to be smart over the course of a season,” Brown told the media postgame. “You don’t want to play one game and risk being out for five to 10. Sometimes I need those guys to protect me from me.”

That quote says a lot - about Brown’s competitiveness, his awareness, and the position the Celtics are in right now.

Boston has leaned on him heavily all season, but January has pushed things to another level. Brown is averaging over 36 minutes per game this month, and he’s appeared on the injury report with hamstring tightness in back-to-back games. He’s played through it both times.

That’s the good news. The bad news is the schedule offers no real relief.

The Celtics won’t have two days off in a row until the All-Star break. They’re playing every other day for the next two weeks, and while the upcoming stretch features sub-.500 opponents, the physical toll doesn’t disappear just because the competition softens. If anything, those are the moments where discipline matters most.

This season, Brown has already shown he can scale his game to the moment. He’s taken on more playmaking responsibility, absorbed tougher defensive assignments, and embraced the role of steadying presence during late-game chaos, even as Boston has struggled to close. His performance against Chicago was another example: efficient scoring, strong rebounding, and a willingness to attack despite clearly managing something physically.

But the larger concern is unavoidable.

Running Brown into the ground now undermines everything Boston is building toward. The Celtics believe this season can still matter in a real way, especially with Tatum’s return looming later in the year. That belief only holds if Brown is healthy when it counts.

This is where Joe Mazzulla and the Celtics have to step in - even if Brown doesn’t want them to.

A strategically placed rest day. Shorter stints. A willingness to live with short-term discomfort in exchange for long-term stability.

None of it is flashy, and none of it guarantees wins in the moment. But it may be the difference between Brown being available in April and watching him try to fight through something that never fully healed.

Brown has done his part. He’s answered every call. Now the Celtics have to protect their most important player - from opponents, from the schedule, and, as Brown himself admitted, from himself.

Because the season isn’t slipping away in January.

But it absolutely can be compromised.

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Tom Carroll is a contributor for Roundtable, with boots-on-the-ground coverage of all things Boston sports. He's a senior digital content producer for WEEI.com, and a native of Lincoln, RI.