Con: The Celtics had to play Tuesday night’s game against the Raptors without starting center Kristaps Porzingis.

Pro: Boston was able to beat Toronto anyway, 111-101, despite missing four rotation players, and now expects to have Porzingis available for Wednesday’s matchup with the red-hot Detroit Pistons.

“He wasn’t feeling well, and at the same time, we wanted to make sure that we’ll have him for (Wednesday),” Celtics head coach Joe Mazzulla told reporters postgame, explaining why Porzingis (illness) was a last-minute scratch. “We kind of all made that decision together, just kind of as a team, that it’d be best if … we make sure we guarantee to have him (Wednesday).”

Porzingis and veteran big man Al Horford both typically do not play on back-to-back nights, so Mazzulla often staggers their usage in those situations, with one player sitting out the first game and the other the second. Boston’s initial plan seemingly was to play Porzingis against Toronto and Horford against Detroit, as the latter was ruled out hours before Tuesday’s game.

But after Porzingis fell ill shortly before tipoff at Scotiabank Arena, Mazzulla decided to hold both players out, meaning both now should be available against an upstart Pistons team that has won seven straight games. Starting guard Jrue Holiday should be, as well, after he sat out against the Raptors for rest purposes. Third-string center Luke Kornet missed Tuesday’s game for personal reasons; his status for Wednesday is unclear.

Rather than start No. 4 big Neemias Queta against Toronto, Mazzulla plugged recently signed veteran wing Torrey Craig into Porzingis’ spot and utilized small lineups for much of the game. Queta played 20 minutes in the win, and reserve big man Xavier Tillman was a healthy DNP.

Craig, who’s rarely played center in his eight-year NBA career, won the opening tip and finished with four points and three rebounds in 15 minutes in his first start as a Celtic. Mazzulla went away from him in the second half, gravitating toward an even smaller lineup that featured Payton Pritchard alongside Derrick White, Sam Hauser, Jaylen Brown and Jayson Tatum.

It helped Boston that Toronto was missing its top big man, Jakob Poeltl, who missed the game with a hip injury.

“I think it was just having an understanding that the lineups were different, the matchups were different,” Mazzulla told reporters. “So it was really just a fun challenge to be able to just figure out how we were going to impact the game on every single possession. I told Torrey before the national anthem that he was starting. He hasn’t played much; he’s still getting used to some of our language and sets, and so (we were) a little discombobulated at first. But once we got through that, we were able to just kind of have fun with it, take on the challenge, and guys did a great job of stepping up.”