Kyrie Irving must instill his latest message into his teammates from afar.
The Boston Celtics point guard will miss Monday night’s game at the Brooklyn Nets due to a bruised right quadriceps, the team announced in a statement. However, he’s expected to be healthy enough to play Wednesday night when the Toronto Raptors visit TD Garden.
#NEBHInjuryReport: Kyrie Irving (right quad contusion) confirms that he will not play tonight, but will be back for Wednesday’s matchup with Toronto.
— Boston Celtics (@celtics) January 14, 2019
Marcus Smart also will miss Monday night’s game due to illness.
#NEBHInjuryReport Marcus Smart will also be unavailable tonight due to an illness.
— Boston Celtics (@celtics) January 14, 2019
Terry Rozier is expected to start at point guard in Irving’s absence.
Irving said he suffered the injury during Saturday’s loss to the Orlando Magic.
Kyrie on quad injury that's keeping him out vs BKN: "I went up with Aaron Gordon and came down kind of awkward on my leg. I’m just glad I do enough work on my legs, honestly. It could have been bad. I’m just glad I came down the way I did, just isolated to my quad."
— Adam Himmelsbach (@AdamHimmelsbach) January 14, 2019
Following the 105-103 loss, Irving called out his younger teammates for not playing hard enough over the full 48 minutes.
Like fans, he’ll be interested to see whether his words will galvanize the Celtics after back-to-back losses. A third consecutive setback on Monday would sour Boston’s mood ahead of a visit by the Raptors, whose 33-12 record is the best in the NBA at this point in the season.
