BOSTON — The Celtics will be down two starters in Sunday’s matchup against the Wizards, with Kristaps Porzingis and Jayson Tatum both sitting.
Porzingis was a late scratch, added to the injury report just an hour before the game with a non-COVID illness. He’s missed 37 games so far this season, the majority of which have been due to an offseason ankle surgery ( and dealing with an illness that kept him out the first half of March. It’s not known if Porzingis’s illness on Sunday is connected to the illness he suffered last month.
Tatum, meanwhile, has appeared in 70 of the Celtics’ 77 games this season, but will miss this one nursing an ankle sprain he suffered in last month’s win over the Sacramento Kings. That injury kept him out of just one game and doesn’t seem likely to be a factor heading into the postseason.
Jaylen Brown will continue to play through his knee injury
Brown has missed 10 games this season due to a bone bruise with posterior impingement in his right knee, which the team officially announced on March 21st. But he’s mostly played through this injury, playing in five of the team’s last six games, albeit with a minutes restriction; Brown hasn’t played more than 20 minutes since March 12th.
“You normally see people go complain about when people are choosing not to play,” Brown said with a smile after Friday’s game against the Suns. “I’ve never been experienced it the other way around — where I’m playing and people are encouraging me not to.”
“Pain is definitely a physical thing, but it also is a mental thing,” Brown said, adding: “My team visibly can see maybe I’m in a bit of pain — they trust me to go out there, and I can control my body, and still be able to make plays, and mentally, be able to kind of push through it. I think that’s going to be something I’m gonna have to have in my back pocket. I’ve been utilizing these games to feel things out. Things will get better, I’m sure, but if they don’t, then I still have a good feel of where my baseline is at.”
The rest of the Celtics will be available to play in Sunday’s match-up with the Wizards, with Luke Kornet and Al Horford slotting into the starting lineup in place of Tatum and Porzingis.
