The Celtics will be without their entire starting five on Wednesday night as they take on the Orlando Magic in their final road contest of the regular season. The team ruled Jaylen Brown (bone bruise) out about an hour before tip after he was originally listed as questionable. Boston had previously ruled out five other players including Jrue Holiday (shoulder), Al Horford (right knee sprain), Kristaps Porzingis (illness reconditioning), Jayson Tatum (left ankle sprain) and Derrick White (ankle sprain) for the contest.
The Celtics are coming off an overtime win against the Knicks on Tuesday night in Madison Square Garden, setting up the challenging back-to-back in Orlando. Brown played just 22 minutes against the Knicks but the team has tried to be cautious with him for the past few weeks as he’s dealt with the knee injury.
“We just got what we needed to get out of him as he continues to push himself and test himself,” Joe Mazzulla said of playing Brown low minutes. “We still got games left so we got what we needed to get, what we needed to see and we’ll just continue to move forward.”
Brown spoke about the balance of playing through the injury and getting rest ahead of the postseason last week.
“As we continue to move forward, I’m hoping to feel better and better,” Brown said on Friday night. “But there’s no guarantee that rest or anything like that is going to make this thing better, so kind of figuring it out and going through it and getting ready for the playoffs.”
The Celtics bench will look to tie the NBA record for most road wins in the regular season on Wednesday night as they try to go 34-7 on the year.
