Celtics Lineup Suffers All-Star Sized Blow: Report

The Boston Celtics continue to suffer at the hands of the latest Coronavirus outbreak that’s sweeping through the NBA.

In a crushing blow to an already struggling Celtics team, The Atheltic’s Shams Charania recently reported that All-Star wing Jayson Tatum has entered into the league’s health and safety protocols.

As such, Tatum will now miss 10 days of basketball activity as he isolates. The latest blow to the Celtics means that they will now be without one of their star players for games against the Minnesota Timberwolves, Los Angeles Clippers, Phoenix Suns, Orlando Magic, San Antonio Spurs, and two games against the New York Knicks.

For a team struggling for consistency this season, losing Tatum for a potential seven-game stretch is going to be a tough pill to swallow. However, the Celtics aren’t the only team struggling to put a competitive line-up on the floor and will likely take solace in the fact that Brown remains available for selection.

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Marcus Smart is Questionable Against Timberwolves

As a further blow to the Celtics, starting point guard Marcus Smart has been downgraded from available to questionable for the December 27 game against the Timberwolves. According to the Celtics injury report, Smart’s downgrade is due to a laceration on his right hand.

A silver lining for the Celtics is that numerous roster members are set to return from their own stints in isolation, with Al Horford already back with the team and Grant Williams soon to follow.

Heading into the contest against the Timberwolves, the Celtics will have 13 available players, including the likes of Joe Johnson, who is with the team on a hardship exception. Yet, without their emotional leader in Smart, and their primary scorer in Tatum, Boston’s chances of remaining competitive over the next two weeks have taken a severe blow.

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This Will Be Tatum’s First Absence of the Season

Tatum has not missed a game all season but will now miss a considerable stretch unless he can follow the Josh Richardson route and provide multiple negative tests to “test out” of protocols.

Of course, the hope is that Tatum is asymptomatic, especially when considering the toll COVID took on the All-Star’s body last season, which left him requiring an inhaler before and during games.

Should Tatum develop symptoms, his absence may stretch further than the initial 10-days that the NBA mandates. Yet, the hope is that the 23-year-old remains healthy and can quickly rejoin basketball activities on or around January 7, when his necessary isolation period is over.

Tatum, who struggled on offense to begin the season, has regained some of his All-Star form of late and has improved his season averages as a result. According to Basketball-Reference, Tatum averages 25.6 points, 8.6 rebounds, 3.8 assists, and a steal per game on 41.7% from the field and 32.9% from three.

Of course, Tatum’s conversion rate is far below what we would usually expect from him, but he usually ups his level of play after the All-Star break. Regardless of his current struggles, Boston losing their best player as they fight to remain around .500 throughout the remainder of December is a hammer blow.

We will get our first look at how the Celtics alter their offense when they face off against the Timberwolves on December 27.

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