The Boston Celtics will play another game shorthanded Friday.
Starters Jaylen Brown and Gordon Hayward have been ruled out for their second consecutive games after missing Boston’s narrow victory over the Cleveland Cavaliers on Wednesday.
Both players were injured in the Celtics’ overtime loss to the Brooklyn Nets on Saturday.
A right knee contusion caused Hayward to leave the game in the second quarter and never return after Daniel Theis fell backwards into him.
This appears to be the play where Gordon Hayward contused his knee pic.twitter.com/KZa0VDfNPA
— Celtics on NBC Sports Boston (@NBCSCeltics) March 4, 2020
The forward didn’t travel for the second leg of Boston’s back-to-back, bu put in a little work in practice and is expected to be fine, according to head coach Brad Stevens via 98.5 The Sports Hub’s “Zolak and Bertrand.”
This will be Hayward’s 20th missed game of the season, while Brown will miss his 12th.
Brown is out with a right hamstring strain after tweaking it late in the fourth quarter against Brooklyn. He’s expected to miss one week.