Boston Celtics center Luka Garza will miss the remainder of the season opener against the Philadelphia 76ers after entering concussion protocol, the team announced at halftime. Garza collided with 76ers center Adem Bona while crashing the glass for an offensive rebound late in the second quarter.
He didn’t immediately exit the game, though. Garza played another minute or so and wound up actually swatting away one of Tyrese Maxey’s layup attempts -- no small feat considering how hot Maxey was, scoring 19 points in the period.
With Garza’s Celtics debut officially in the books, his final statline will only be from six minutes of play. The big man didn’t score, but grabbed two rebounds, and, of course, had the block on Maxey.
Luka Garza took a fall in the first half and has since been ruled out
After exiting the game, Garza begins stage one of the league’s concussion protocol, which is as follows:
“If a player is suspected of having a concussion, or exhibits the signs or symptoms of a concussion, he must be removed from participation by either a team physician, or an athletic trainer for the player’s team, and undergo evaluation in a quiet, distraction-free
environment conducive to conducting a neurological evaluation. Prior to a player being allowed to return to game participation, the evaluating physician (or athletic trainer) is required to review video to assess mechanism.”
Even if Garza isn’t diagnosed with a concussion, his symptoms will have to be monitored by the Celtics' medical staff and tested again within 24 hours.
If he is diagnosed with a concussion, then he must sit out all basketball activity for at least 48 hours, until he passes a series of tests to confirm that he’s fully recovered.
In this case, he’d have to miss Boston’s game Friday night in New York.
Though he didn’t play a ton in this game, he’d earned a fair amount of minutes through Boston’s preseason slate. The former Iowa Hawkeye averaged 15 per outing during the exhibition slate. His performances in those games were fine for the most part, but sort of petered out towards the end.
Garza averaged 9.0 points and 3.3 rebounds per game on 42.5% from the field. What was, perhaps, most impressive was his ability to get to the free-throw line. The big man averaged five free throws per game in his first preseason as a Celtic.
In his absence, Boston will have to lean more heavily into Neemias Queta and Xavier Tillman Sr.