Last Friday, the Celtics had their entire roster available and injury-free for the first time this season.
A lot has changed in the last three days.
Boston’s latest injury report, released hours before Monday night’s matchup against the Miami Heat at TD Garden, included all five of the team’s starters, plus pseudo-starter Al Horford.
Horford (left big toe sprain), Kristaps Porzingis (return from injury management) and Jrue Holiday (left knee tendinopathy) all were ruled out against Miami. Jayson Tatum (right patella tendinopathy), Jaylen Brown (non-COVID illness) and Derrick White (right foot sprain) were listed as questionable.
Brown and White both sat out Sunday night’s 115-111 loss to the Cavaliers in Cleveland, forcing head coach Joe Mazzulla to lean heavily on his bench and alter his usual plan for Porzingis and Horford. The two big men both typically do not play on consecutive nights, so Mazzulla prefers to stagger their usage, sitting one on the first night of back-to-backs and the other on the second.
Boston now will be without both of its top-choice centers against Miami, which should result in larger roles for Luke Kornet, Neemias Queta and potentially Xavier Tillman.
Rotation backups Sam Hauser and Payton Pritchard both saw big minutes Sunday with Brown and White unavailable, with Hauser starting for the first time this season and playing a season-high 36 minutes. Pritchard’s 36 minutes were his highest in any non-overtime game this season, and he played the entire fourth quarter for the second consecutive game, scoring 17 points in the frame after dropping 19 in last Friday’s win at Chicago.
Mazzulla also made the surprise decision to give two-way player Drew Peterson 25 minutes against Cleveland, deploying the 6-foot-9 wing in the second, third and fourth quarters. Peterson, who’s averaging 19.6 points and 7.0 rebounds per game in the G League this season, had played just 30 NBA minutes in his career entering Sunday.
In his postgame news conference, Mazzulla praised Peterson’s defense and basketball IQ, adding that the Celtics “try to find moments throughout the season to where you can validate the work that the guys put in, regardless of who it is.” The second-year pro finished with eight points on 2-of-6 shooting, four rebounds and one steal.
The Celtics will need to rely on the bottom half of their roster again Monday night, even if Brown, White and Tatum are able to play. If any of those three join Porzingis, Horford and Holiday on the inactive list, there could be additional playing-time opportunities for deep reserves like Jordan Walsh, Jaden Springer, two-way player JD Davison and rookie Baylor Scheierman.
This injury bug struck at an inopportune time for the Celtics, who are in the midst of a stretch of five games in seven days. After facing the Heat, they’ll host the Detroit Pistons on Wednesday, the Milwaukee Bucks on Friday and the Memphis Grizzlies on Saturday.
Miami also will be similarly shorthanded for its first visit to TD Garden since last postseason. The Heat, who played Sunday in Toronto, ruled out Jimmy Butler (knee), Kel’el Ware (foot), Nikola Jovic (ankle), Josh Richardson (illness) and Josh Christopher (G League).
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