The Boston Celtics are set to take on the Atlanta Hawks on Tuesday night in the first game of their NBA Cup slate. The two sides have been having very different seasons. As Boston has been striving for a top seed in the East, the Hawks have been fighting to stay in the race for the Play-In Tournament. And both sides have been dealing with injuries.
Trae Young will miss the game on Tuesday, but both Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown are available to play. Both have been dealing with their own respective injuries in recent weeks. Brown has had a left hip flexor strain, while Tatum sprained his ankle on Sunday against the Milwaukee Bucks.
Luckily, both seem to be all right.
Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown are doing fine
Before the game against the Hawks, head coach Joe Mazzulla said that both Tatum and Brown are just fine and will not have a minutes restriction against Atlanta.
“They're both good,” Mazzulla said. “No issues, no restrictions.”
As small of an update as it is, it should be viewed as a great sign for Celtics fans, especially considering how little information Mazzulla usually delivers with his injury updates.
Normally, when Mazzulla is asked about an injury update, he immediately looks to Celtics PR. He doesn’t want to give away any information that doesn’t go through them. This time around, he didn’t. He just told it like it is.
With that context in mind, it seems overwhelmingly likely that his update was the full truth—that both Tatum and Brown are doing fine with their individual injuries.
That’s a phenomenal sign for the Celtics, as the nicks and bruises have already begun to pile up a bit early in the season.
Obviously, they aren’t catching the injury bug to the degree that teams like the New Orleans Pelicans and Hawks are, but guys like Sam Hauser, Luke Kornet, Jaden Springer (and now, Tatum and Brown) have all missed a game or two here or there with various ailments. And all of that is on top of Kristaps Porzingis’ already established extended absence.
If Tatum and Brown were to miss a significant amount of time, the Celtics would have to battle to keep up in the standings (with the Cleveland Cavaliers, in particular).
But from the sound of Mazzulla’s latest update, the Celtics don’t have to worry about that right now. Tatum and Brown are good to go against the Hawks, and it doesn’t seem like either of their injuries are serious.