Celtics will have to close road trip without Brown, Porzingis, & Horford in Utah

The Celtics can be closing out their five-game highway journey a bit shorthanded tonight in opposition to the Utah Jazz. Jaylen Brown (sacroiliac sprain), Al Horford (left huge toe sprain), and Kristaps Porzingis (proper hamstring pressure) are all listed as out for Tuesday’s matchup.

Porzingis’ absence will mark his third in as many video games. He hasn’t gotten again on the market since spending Thursday evening doing his finest to decelerate two-time MVP Nikola Jokic, which isn’t any straightforward activity. Jokic was extraordinarily bodily with Porzingis all evening, so it wasn’t stunning when he obtained the evening off in Phoenix.

It additionally wasn’t stunning when he was out for Monday’s matchup in opposition to the Portland Trail Blazers. The massive man often splits back-to-backs with Horford, who performed yesterday. Nevertheless, it’s considerably shocking to see him out in opposition to the Jazz, nevertheless it’s seemingly only a “hey, Luke Kornet ought to be capable of deal with it” form of day — fingers crossed, a minimum of.

Once more, Horford taking his scheduled relaxation day isn’t something to fret about both. An enormous shoutout to the PR crew for locating the funniest motive (in addition to merely itemizing him as “outdated”) to sit down the veteran out.

Brown has been hanging round on the harm report for the previous week with this sacroiliac pressure. It actually hasn’t appeared to have an effect on his play as he’s been Boston’s most dependable participant all through this highway journey.

He’s averaged 29 factors, 5.8 rebounds, and three.8 assists over his final 5 video games.

It’s good that he’ll get a pleasant relaxation earlier than the crew returns dwelling to host the Suns on Thursday.

With these three being out for the highway journey finale, you’d need to guess that Kornet will slide into the beginning lineup on the heart spot. Regardless that Payton Pritchard obtained the beginning in Portland, it feels extra like a Sam Hauser form of evening since they’re seeking to change JB on the ahead spot. It additionally helps that Hauser was on fireplace final evening, hanging a crisp and environment friendly 22 factors on the Path Blazers.

Boston can be seeking to earn win quantity 51 on the Delta Heart in opposition to the Jazz and to tug a optimistic 3-2 document on the West Coast journey.