With Tuesday’s win over Atlanta, the Celtics moved to within a single game of a top-four spot in the East, but it wasn’t all good news for Boston. As Tim Bontemps of ESPN details, Jaylen Brown left the game in the first half due to a right ankle sprain and didn’t return.
“[He] rolled it,” head coach Ime Udoka said after the game. “Got some swelling and soreness, obviously. He tried to give it a go in the back and wanted to come back out and play, [but] just decided big picture, where we’re at in the season and be smart. So we’ll know more over the next few days.”
Although Brown walked with a limp when he left the game, he was able to exit the court under his own power, which was a positive sign. Udoka is optimistic that the injury won’t be a significant one.
“You would hope not,” Udoka said, per Bontemps. “He walked off by himself and then tried to go in the back. So you would hope not. But we’ll evaluate him over the next few days and, hopefully, it doesn’t seem like it. But you never know; it can change overnight with swelling and pain.”
Let’s round a few more notes out of Boston…
- Jared Weiss of The Athletic takes a closer look at what the Celtics are getting in swingman Matt Ryan, who signed a two-way contract with the team earlier this week. As Weiss outlines, Ryan is a very talented outside shooter, but is still working on improving his defense.
- The Celtics likely won’t be active in the buyout market, Udoka said on Tuesday (Twitter link via Gary Washburn of The Boston Globe). That’s not a surprise, given the lack of appealing available options. As our tracker shows, Enes Freedom and DeAndre Jordan are the only notable healthy veterans who were waived since the trade deadline and have yet to line up new teams — Freedom is ineligible to re-sign with Boston after being traded by the C’s last month.
- The 10-day contracts signed by Kelan Martin and Malik Fitts last week will expire this Friday night. At that point, the Celtics will dip back down to 12 players on standard contracts, so if they don’t re-sign both Martin and Fitts right away, they’d have up to two weeks to get back to the league-mandated minimum of 14 players.
Celtics looked really good last night. Great effort from everyone. Liked to see how they worked on getting Grant touches. Also nice that they not only clawed back but didn’t give up the lead in q4, which has been their MO for the past 5-10 years?
Only lingering question is whether it’s sustainable to exert that much on D. I’m less worried about JT as their “only” offensive weapon as handsome Stan brought up on the broadcast, because frankly every team suffers when they’re missing their best players.
Agree. Every team suffers from injury but only green teamers use it as an excuse. C’s are playing well and finally going to get challenged in the next couple of games.
Bring in Kris Dunn
Celtics fans liked Daniel Theis (at least those that don’t hold grudges or hate everyone).
The former Defensive Player of the Year in Germany was the guy who sealed off defenders so Tatum could drive when Theis was here with the Celtics. His three point shot & free throw mechanics looked good too, to me.
So I hope Coach Udoka can get Theis some minutes without it being because of injury. Seems like a very good defender should somehow, some way fit in with our defensive identity.
Go Celtics!
As a person sure. As a player? I think fans would like him more if he didn’t have 5 fouls in the first quarter so often.
Hopefully a bad rap. I don’t remember that problem in Theis’s two years with the Celtics. But at 6’8″ & playing center, it’s certainly always out there. I guess Coach Udoka will only use him if TimeLord & Al get in trouble. We always loved his defense, blocking shots and his team play. Glad he’s back!