Celtics have a packed injury report for Wednesday’s game vs. Blazers
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By Matt Geagan
March 5, 2025 / 7:30 AM EST / CBS Boston
It looks like the Boston Celtics will be shorthanded when they welcome the Portland Trail Blazers to TD Garden on Wednesday night. Six players are listed on the team’s injury report, including All-Stars Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown.
Despite head coach Joe Mazzulla giving an optimistic update on both Jrue Holiday and Kristaps Porzingis following Tuesday’s practice, both players are listed as doubtful for Wednesday’s tilt. Holiday is dealing with a “mallet finger” injury on his shooting hand, while Porzingis is battling a non-COVID illness. Both participated in Tuesday’s practice after missing Boston’s last two game, but will likely miss another game Wednesday night.
Holiday said Sunday that he won’t require surgery for his injury, but he’s been wearing a splint on his right pinky. It’s unclear when the 34-year-old guard will return, but both Holiday and Mazzulla said the team will take a cautious approach as he manages the ailment.
Porzingis has yet to play back-to-back games this season, so he may be sitting out Wednesday night before returning to action Thursday night when the Celtics host the Philadelphia 76ers.
Both of Boston’s All-Stars popped up on the injury report, with Tatum and Brown listed as questionable for Wednesday night. Tatum is dealing with a right shoulder impingement while Brown has an illness.
Tatum has missed just three games as he’s put together another superstar season for Boston. He’s averaged 26.8 points, 8.8 rebounds, and 5.8 assists per game, and 25.7 points, 10.6 rebounds, and 8.0 assists over the last seven games.
Brown has put together a fine season himself, averaging 23.2 points, 6.0 rebounds, and a career-best 4.7 assists per game. He has missed 10 games with various ailments, including last Wednesday against the Pistons with a left thigh contusion. Now it looks like he’s dealing with the same illness that has sidelined Porzingis for three of Boston’s last four games.
Rounding out Boston’s injury report for Wednesday night are starting guard Derrick White (low back contusion) and reserve guard Payton Pritchard (hip flexor), who are listed as probable for the game.
That’s a lot of star power on Boston’s injury report against a Blazers team that has been playing well, winning 15 of their last 21 games. Depending on which players can and can’t play for the Celtics, it could open the door for Sam Hauser, Torrey Craig, Jordan Walsh, and rookie Baylor Scheierman to get some extended run.
The Blazers will not have former Celtics big man Robert Williams on Wednesday, as he’ll be sidelined with a knee injury. Williams hasn’t played since Feb. 20 and has suited up for just 20 games this season, averaging 5.8 points, 5.9 rebounds, and 1.7 blocks for Portland.
Wednesday night is the third game of a seven-game homestand for Boston. While the team doesn’t have to travel again until next week, the Celtics have a busy schedule with seven games over the next 11 days.
Wednesday night is the first leg of a back-to-back, with the Philadelphia 76ers coming to town Thursday night. The Celtics will then close out the homestand with a Saturday night showdown with the Los Angeles Lakers on national TV, a visit from the Utah Jazz on Monday, and a matchup with the Western Conference-leading Oklahoma City Thunder next Wednesday.
Boston then hits the road for a back-to-back against the Miami Heat and Brooklyn Nets next Friday and Saturday. The C’s will host the Nets on Tuesday, March 18, and then get a few nights off before starting a six-game West Coast swing. That tip will bring the Celtics to Utah, Portland, Sacramento, Phoenix, San Antonio, and Memphis.
The Celtics are 43-18 with 21 games left in the regular season, and own a three-game lead over the New York Knicks for the two-seed in the Eastern Conference.
Matthew Geagan is a sports producer for CBS Boston. He has been part of the WBZ sports team for nearly 20 years. He moved over to the web in 2012 and has covered all the highs (and a few lows) in Boston sports.
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©2025 CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.
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POR @ BOS | MIN @ CHA | MIA @ CLE | UTA @ WAS | DAL @ MIL | SAC @ DEN | OKC @ MEM | DET @ LAC
Portland Trail Blazers at Boston Celtics (front end)
Team Totals: Blazers 108, Celtics 117.5
Injury Report: Jerami Grant (Q, knee), Jaylen Brown (Q, illness), Kristaps Porzingis (D, illness), Jayson Tatum (Q, shoulder), Jrue Holiday (D, finger), Derrick White (P, back)
Blazers projected starters: Anfernee Simons, Shaedon Sharpe, Toumani Camara, Deni Avdija, Donovan Clingan (Note: Could see Grant starting over Avdija)
Celtics projected starters: Derrick White, Sam Hauser, Jaylen Brown, Jayson Tatum, Al Horford
Billups quotes: Said it was an incredible team win with a road B2B, said Clingan was incredible with the plays he made on both ends, said they were really attacking on the offensive end, said Sharpe was disappointed he gave up so many baskets against the Cavs and he responded, said Sharpe hitting the boards was huge, said he pulled Deni out for a bit to calm him down through some struggles, said Toumani made it really hard on Maxey, said Clingan “is such a winner” and was better at being in a better position to not foul.
Mazzulla quotes: Said he liked how their rim defense limited the Nuggets, said he liked how Queta and Pritchard carried the second unit against the Nuggets, said Queta is OK with barely getting minutes on this winning team, said he doesn’t have to talk to Al Horford about playing him heavy minutes, said they care more about giving up easy shots to opponents than what kind of shots they get on offense, said they didn’t talk about Jokic in the game plan and they talked more about limiting cuts and off-ball scoring.
Stats and Notes:
*Well, the Celtics aren’t messing around with Q tags with a national TV game tomorrow.
*The Blazers have been one of the better stories in the league over the last month and it resulted in Toumani Camara getting Western Conference Defensive Player of the Month. So good. Since the Deandre Ayton injury and after the stomping to the Nuggets, the Blazers have been second in defensive rating over those seven games. They’ve been second in the halfcourt and it starts with their thriving on-ball defenders, led by Toumani. They’ve been excellent at keeping rim scoring in check, but they aren’t as great with their transition defense over this span. They’ve also been lucky on giving up some C&S stuff, so that doesn’t set up great against the Celtics here. For the Celtics, they have a game tomorrow against a banged-up Philly team, and both are at home. When they have Kristaps Porzingis, their rim defense has been excellent to go with their fantastic C&S and transition defense. As great as the Blazers have been, this sets up quite poorly for them, especially if they don’t have Jerami Grant.
*Anfernee Simons gets an OK matchup here with the way the Celtics funnel on-ball scoring. Still, Derrick White is going to give him problems and Simons has struggled against high-end defenders this year (not great against McDaniels, Coulibaly, and Amen). He should play a lot and maybe he gets hot from deep.
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Blazers vs. Celtics Preview
FILED UNDER:
Portland takes on the defending champs in Boston.
The Portland Trail Blazers are winners of five out of their last six as they roll into Beantown on Wednesday to take on the Boston Celtics. On Sunday, they took out the Philadelphia 76ers 119-102. Anfernee Simons led all scores with 34, while Shaedon Sharpe contributed 20 points and 11 rebounds.
On paper, a contest against the Celtics looks to be a losing proposition for the Blazers, but there are a few factors that might even the odds a bit. Boston lists all five starters on the injury list as of this writing, and even at full strength it’s not uncommon for the Celtics to sleepwalk for significant stretches. One way or another, the odds are pretty good that the Blazers won’t be getting the best version of the Celtics for at least significant stretches of the game. Portland has also shown a youthful fearlessness recently, notably against the Cavaliers in a narrow overtime loss. If the Celtics show up and put the hammer down from the opening tip this might not be pleasant watching for Blazers fans, but odds are pretty good that the conditions might be there for this to be a close contest.
Portland Trail Blazers (28-34) at Boston Celtics (43-18) – Wed. Mar. 5 – 4:00pm Pacific
How to watch via antenna or cable: See your options on the Rip City Television Network
How to watch via streaming: BlazerVision in Oregon and Washington; League Pass everywhere else
Trail Blazers injuries: Matisse Thybulle, Deandre Ayton, Robert Williams III (out), Jerami Grant (questionable)
Celtics injuries: Jrue Holiday, Kristaps Porzingis (doubtful), Jayson Tatum, Jaylen Brown (questionable), Payton Pritchard, Derrick White (probable)
SB Nation Affiliate: Celtics Blog
EarlyThompson:
At what point — assuming there is one — would those who are vehemently anti-Billups (and for good reason, I’d say) have a change of heart? A win in Boston to improve their road trip to 4 and 5 and make us winners of 16 of our last 21 games? Is that enough evidence of growth for this very young team? Or to make the play-in? Playoffs? Or is it irreversible for many of the Blazer fans here?
I doubt there will be a positive consensus on Billups unless something truly miraculous transpires. As it is currently, there is certainly no meeting of the minds amongst Blazer’s Edge staff on what to make of Billups’ performance, both in terms of what these recent wins mean and in the bigger picture of how good of a job he is doing developing the younger players. For every argument there seems to be an equally good counter-argument. Unexpectedly winning 4 out of 5 on the road? Well, look at the quality of the opponents and the injury lists of the better foes. Shaedon Sharpe’s play improving after being benched? Why would you bench a superstar of the future in the first place? These guys really look to be clicking? Of course, it’s only after injuries forced his hand that Billups started playing his best lineups. And on and on. It’s my read that at least a third of Blazers fans have irreversibly made up their mind, and only something truly miraculous like making the playoffs and pulling off a staggering upset of the likes of Denver or Oklahoma City in a series would make a difference.
TheZink1:
The Celtics are so good. Is there any crazy scenario you can think of where the Blazers escape Boston with a dub?
The crazy scenario is “injuries,” and it’s in play. The entire starting rotation for the Celtics is on the injury report, plus another rotation player to boot. If two sit out you’d probably still pick the Celtics to win, but any more than that and the equation changes. Even if some or all of their “injured” players play, it’s not far-fetched to imagine these guys sleepwalking for three quarters or so. On paper this should be no contest, but that’s kind of what we thought against Cleveland so we’ll see.
desertboy96:
Squint a bit, and I can see a poor man’s version of the Celtics rejuvenation between the Paul Pierce era and the current Tatum Celtics with the Blazers rebuild. Aging starters (Pierce, Garnett/Dame, Nurk) dumped on desperate win-now teams for picks and prospects. Celtics took 11 years for it to come to full fruition, with a slew of complimentary moves (Horford, Holiday, etc) and internal growth (look at Jaylen Browns rookie stats, and it looks more like Scoot bust profile than future foundation star). What are odds Blazers can replicate Celtics rebuild in 6-7 years (prime age Scoot, Cling, Shae)? One in 5? One in ten? One in 28?
One thing I think people are sleeping on a bit is how the recent CBA changes are impacting the trade market. The Celtics under Danny Ainge traded away stars and began an incredible stretch of hoarding draft picks. While there is a lot of room for criticism over how long the club waited to finally start doing something with those picks, you can draw a pretty straight line between that pile of picks and Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown, among other current Celtics. Today with hard caps and salary-matching rules, it’s hard to amass such a barrel full of picks if you don’t have top-tier talent to trade or gobs of cap space to take back salary. That means the Blazers have much less room to maneuver than the Celtics had. It’s not impossible that a team led by Scoot, Shaedon and Clingan become world beaters, but it seems like a pretty huge longshot without at least one new superstar and other key additions. Owning the Bucks’ draft for three years could possibly provide a missing ingredient, but the Blazers are going to need some pretty massive luck. Put it all together and I regrettably have to say that the odds of the Blazers pulling off a rebuild on the level of the Celtics is far longer than the 1 in 28 you’ve mentioned over the next 6-7 years. Keep in mind that the Celtics are in the running for dynasty status, so you’ve set the bar extremely high. If we change the terms to being a threat to make the finals, I think 1 in 15 or 1 in 20 is at least in play with a promising core and future additions, but without somehow getting a massive pile of assets, 1 in 5 or 1 in 10 is probably pretty far from reality.
Final injury report. It’s not impossible that every Celtics starter sits this one out. It’s also possible that the Celtics put a very strong lineup on the court. Reading the tea leaves, I’m guessing that at least two of the six Celtics rotation players will not suit up, and more likely three. If the Blazers can pull off an upset surely injuries will have played a roll.
Bill Sy of Celtics Blog argues that being without Kristaps Porzingis and Jrue Holiday has been a primary reason for losses to the Cleveland Cavaliers and the Detroit Pistons.
As much as the second unit came through, the strength of Holiday and Porzingis — on both sides of the ball — is their versatility. Queta’s energy around the rim on offensive rebounds and as a target in the dunker spot brings something different to the front court, but he’s not as reliable as a post-up threat or three-point shooter as Porzingis. Few are matchup nightmares like KP. Pritchard and Hauser got hot, but neither can take defensive stretches on either Jamal Murray or Jokic like Holiday can. There are no defensive mismatches for the All-Defense First Teamer.
Are we in for a Nuggets-Celtics final? Zach Harper of The Athletic (subscription required) is rooting for it.
To be honest, I’m with this idea. I hate parity when it comes to the NBA. It’s the ugly, creepy cousin of “everybody gets a trophy.” Winning an NBA title is supposed to be difficult, and the idea that a system would be set up to decrease hardships for a team trying to win the Larry O’Brien trophy angers me. The NBA is at its best when dynasties are built and then torn down by the scrambling competition. It’s what we thought the Nuggets were going to do a year ago, and it’s what we assume the Celtics are in position to accomplish now.
See what the ESPN crew thinks after the Celtics big win over the Denver Nuggets on Sunday.
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