Jaylen Brown missed Thursday’s game against the Pistons due to a low back contusion, but the Celtics star is not expected to miss extended time because of the injury.
“He just woke up sore today,” Celtics coach Joe Mazzulla said. “So I don’t envision it being long term.”
Brown sustained the injury in Monday’s Christmas Day win over the Lakers when he collided with LeBron James. The Lakers star accidentally tripped up Brown and kneed him in his lower back, causing both to fall and stay on the floor for several moments. Brown went straight to the locker room but returned to finish the game.
It’s unclear if Brown – who missed just his second game of the season – will miss Friday’s second leg of the back-to-back against the Raptors.
Without Brown, the Celtics started Al Horford alongside Kristaps Porzingis as Mazzulla continues to experiment with double-big lineups. Though the league has shifted to faster, smaller, shooting-focused lineups, the C’s believe they have a strength with their frontcourt because of their versatility and ability to defend multiple positions.
“It’s pretty cool because the way that the league is going, kind of getting away from that, and for me, I work with these guys every day with the bigs a lot of the time,” Horford said. “Usually we’re not expected to be together and I think it’s pretty cool. They all obviously bring something different. My role changes slightly any time one of those guys are in and some of the things that I need to do. But it’s fun. I really enjoy, on defense and offense, but I really enjoy when I have some of those other guys out there, I know it’s not so much on me defensively, kind of protecting the back line and those guys do a really good job of that.
One of the most encouraging developments of the Celtics’ West Coast trip last week was the emergence of backup big man Neemias Queta, who continued to impress in the opportunities he has earned. He recorded the first two double-doubles of his career – in the loss to the Warriors and then the win over the Clippers. And when Luke Kornet was deemed available for Monday’s win over the Lakers after missing time with an adductor injury, Queta got some first-half minutes instead of him.
Queta, in his third season in the league and on a two-way contract with the Celtics, is still raw and isn’t exactly polished offensively, but he’s been a workhouse on the glass and has been one of Boston’s best screeners. He’s given them something different off the bench, and has made a case for an expanded role.
“It’s been great to see,” Horford said. “Just really surprised how quickly he’s grasping everything and the impact he’s able to have on our group, the energy that he’s bringing. It’s just been encouraging to see it. He’s the kind of guy who continues to put in the work. The biggest thing for him is just to continue to stay ready because you just never know when your number’s going to be called and you’re going to play more minutes one game and things like that. It’s been pretty encouraging to see.”
Though Queta earned playing time over Kornet on Monday, Mazzulla said it wasn’t anything to read into.
“Luke’s done a lot for us over the last two years. He’s going to play,” Mazzulla said. “It was one game where he was just healthy that day and Neemie had been playing well. So Luke’s going to play. Those two guys have both done good things for them and they’re both good and they offer different stuff. And so Luke is really, really good in our defensive system. Neemie’s getting better in it. And they both bring different strengths on the offensive end. Luke’s ability to pass and off-ball situations. Neemie’s ability to screen, get behind bigs. So it’s just a matter of using both now.”
The Celtics were happy with how they finished their four-game West Coast road trip after they won three consecutive games following their loss to the Warriors. Mazzulla said there were several objectives he wanted the team to meet on both ends, and besides a few stretches, he loved the way they played.
“I thought we played really good basketball on both ends,” Mazzulla said. “And I thought we reinvented our offense a little bit with our off-ball and our pace. For those teams, we have to continue it. And I thought defensively, for the most part, against fast teams, I think we were the best transition defense in the league over those four games. So against fast, high-powered offensive teams, I thought our transition D was good, which is a product of we only averaged nine turnovers a game in those four games. And so we’re just playing well-balanced basketball on both ends of the floor. We got to fight to keep it up.”