Getty Marcus Morris
The Boston Celtics and Indiana Pacers square off in a crucial game for the Eastern Conference playoff picture on Friday night. Whichever team goes on to win this one gets a big advantage in the push for the No. 4 seed and homecourt advantage in the first round of the 2019 NBA Playoffs. For the Celtics, they’ll enter a bit shorthanded as the status of a few players remains up in the air.
After it originally appeared as though Jaylen Brown would be good to go in this game, he was ruled out shortly after. Along with him, the statuses of both Al Horford and Marcus Morris remain somewhat in question, and the latter has been an especially interesting situation to monitor as we get closer to tip.
We’re going to take a look at the latest roster and starting lineup for the Celtics, along with the injury report and status of Morris and Horford.
Celtics Injury Report & Status of Marcus Morris, Al Horford
After Morris was originally listed as out against the Pacers due to knee soreness, his status was upgraded to questionable shortly after. NESN’s Chris Grenham was the first to report the news of Morris being upgraded on Friday afternoon.
On the other side of the spectrum, The Athletic’s Jay King revealed that shortly after Brown said he had a chance to play against the Pacers, the team ruled him out. The guard is dealing with back spasms and was upgraded originally after being doubtful as of Thursday afternoon.
Jaylen Brown, minutes after telling us he had a chance to play tonight, has been ruled out.
On a positive note, the league’s official injury report lists Horford as probable with left knee soreness, and those are the only three names who were on the original update Friday.
Celtics Roster & Starting Lineup vs. Pacers
*Notates expected starter
UPDATE: Marcus Morris is now likely to play.
C: Aron Baynes*, Daniel Theis, Robert Williams
PF: Al Horford (P)*, Marcus Morris, Guerschon Yabusele
SF: Jayson Tatum*, Gordon Hayward, Semi Ojeleye
SG: Marcus Smart*, R.J. Hunter
PG: Kyrie Irving*, Terry Rozier, Brad Wanamaker
As things currently stand, the Celtics and Pacers hold the No. 4 and 5 seeds in the East with the exact same 47-32 record. They’re both two games back of the Philadelphia 76ers for the No. 3 seed, but it appears we’re destined for an opening-round matchup in the NBA playoffs between these two.
With just three games remaining for both, the winner of this game gets a big leg up, and the Pacers especially need it as the Celtics defeated them twice already this season. The good news for Indiana is that this game will be played on their home floor, but they may be without guards Darren Collison and Wesley Matthews.
We’ll update this post once more information on the status of Morris and Horford is revealed, along with any additional updates that come to light on the Celtics vs. Pacers matchup.
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