Jaylen Brown has a sprained ankle and won’t play Wednesday when the Celtics face the Magic in Orlando.
The rest of the news was better for Boston. Jayson Tatum and Kemba Walker were full participants at Tuesday’s practice and are expected to play Wednesday.
“Jayson practiced full. Kemba practiced full. Jaylen was out. Jaylen is out tomorrow, but very much day-to-day after that,” Celtics coach Brad Stevens said.
This will be Brown’s eighth missed game as he’s battled shoulder bursitis, non COVID-19 illness and hip and knee ailments this season.
With less than a minute left in Sunday’s loss to Portland, Tatum and Brown collided trying to make a play in the final minute and both ended up limping to the locker room.
On an inbound pass in front of the Celtics’ bench, Norman Powell caught the ball and his right foot landed on Brown’s right foot as Brown tried to steal it. Tatum was hustling over to either foul or trap. The first collision pushed Brown onto Tatum’s right foot.
Both Celtics’ stars crashed to the floor holding their ankles. Brown had to be helped to the locker room.
Tatum was able to put weight on his foot said after the game that he expected to be OK, a prediction that was proven accurate by his practice participation Tuesday.
Walker hasn’t played since suffering a side injury on April 25 in his return to Charlotte. He’s averaging 18.2 points and 5.0 assists this season.
Walker missed the first few weeks of the season as he strengthened his repaired knee and hasn’t played back-to-back games all season to protect it.
Stevens said Walker’s knee has responded so well during the season that this mini-break for his side wouldn’t have much recuperative benefit for his knee.
“That would always be the case, any time he gets time off, but his knee is good,” Stevens said. “He worked really hard at strengthening it. We’ve stayed with the no back-to-backs and that’s been a difficult thing at times for our team. But it’s been the right thing for our team and for Kemba and as a result, his knee feels pretty good. It’s going to be quite a challenge for us to get to where we want to go, but his health is of utmost importance to anything we can possibly achieve as a group.”
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