With the obvious exception of rehabbing superstar Jayson Tatum, the Celtics have had health on their side so far this season.
Outside of Tatum, who likely is months away from returning from Achilles surgery, just one Boston player has missed time due to injury: backup center Luka Garza, who sat out one game after suffering a concussion in the Celtics’ season opener. (Reserve big man Xavier Tillman also missed one game for personal reasons.)
To say the Celtics have been otherwise injury-free would not be accurate — Jaylen Brown, Derrick White, Payton Pritchard, Sam Hauser and Hugo Gonzalez all have appeared on the injury report since the season began last month — but they’ve had their full roster available in nearly all of their 15 games thus far.
At this point last season, the Celtics had yet to activate one starter (Kristaps Porzingis), and the rest of their rotation players had missed a total of 11 games. That Boston team, flush with championship-winning veterans, was deep and experienced enough to withstand a steady drumbeat of regular-season injuries and still win 61 games (before finally crumbling in the second round of the playoffs).
This one almost certainly is not, making its early-season durability especially important.
Head coach Joe Mazzulla has done plenty of lineup shuffling as he experiments with his new-look group, but he’s been able to rely on four locked-in starters in Brown, White, Pritchard and Neemias Queta, with Hauser, Gonzalez, Josh Minott and Jordan Walsh all getting looks in the fifth starting spot.
The Celtics haven’t yet needed to survive without Brown, who ranks 13th in the NBA in scoring and owns the league’s third-highest usage rate behind Luka Doncic and Giannis Antetokounmpo.
They’ve been able to use Anfernee Simons as a sixth man, giving them much-needed off-the-bench scoring while limiting Simons’ defensive exposure. They haven’t had to see how their precarious frontcourt would hold up without Queta, whose stats this season are miles better than his understudies’.
(Boston’s net rating is 30.2 points higher with Queta on the floor than off it, per Cleaning the Glass, and his plus-131 plus/minus ranks in the top 10 in the NBA. Garza, Tillman and Chris Boucher all are in the negatives. The 7-footer, who’s in his first season as an NBA starter, might be the Celtics’ second-most important active player behind Brown.)
Thanks in large part to that continuity, the 8-7 Celtics are off to a respectable start in what many viewed as a gap-year season. After dropping their first three games, they’ve won eight of their last 12, including the last three, and pulled above .500 for the first time by beating the Nets 113-99 on Tuesday night. They sat just two games back of second place in the Eastern Conference entering Wednesday’s action.
Their underlying metrics are strong, too. As of Wednesday, Boston boasted the NBA’s eighth-best net rating and was one of just five teams with a top-10-rated offense and defense, along with the Thunder, Nuggets, Rockets and Spurs. No other East team cracked the top 10 in both categories.
“Health is key,” Brown, who missed 19 games last season with shoulder, hip, ankle and knee issues, said after a Nov. 5 win over the Wizards. “You see a lot of guys getting injured, going around the league, and sitting out games. I want to play as many games as I possibly can.”
Boston Celtics guard Jaylen Brown (7) reacts after a foul was called against him during the second half of an NBA basketball game against the Cleveland Cavaliers, Wednesday, in Boston. (Mark Stockwell/Boston Herald)
Boston Celtics guard Jaylen Brown (7) reacts after a foul was called against him during the second half of an NBA basketball game against the Cleveland Cavaliers, Wednesday, in Boston. (Mark Stockwell/Boston Herald)
Indeed, most of the Celtics’ rivals in the Eastern Conference have dealt with much higher injury rates during the opening month.
The Knicks are playing without Jalen Brunson and OG Anunoby. The Cavaliers are down Darius Garland and Max Strus. Four of the Pistons’ five starters have missed multiple games. Joel Embiid and Paul George have had extended absences for the 76ers. Hawks point guard Trae Young is recovering from a knee injury, as is new teammate Porzingis.
The Heat haven’t had Tyler Herro and played six games without Bam Adebayo. Paolo Banchero and Jalen Suggs have sat out three and four games for the Magic, respectively. Antetokounmpo suffered a groin injury Monday that’s expected to shelve the Bucks star for multiple weeks. The last-place Pacers already have needed to start 12 different players to account for their avalanche of injuries.
One outlier: the 9-5 Raptors, who’ve remained intact outside of a four-game layoff for starting center Jakob Poeltl and entered Wednesday with the East’s third-best record.
Out West, the list of big names who are either currently sidelined or have missed at least five games includes Doncic, Victor Wembanyama, Ja Morant, Jalen Williams, Zion Williamson, Kawhi Leonard, Anthony Davis, Kyrie Irving, Stephon Castle, LeBron James and ex-Celtic Jrue Holiday.
Some, including Warriors head coach Steve Kerr, have blamed this uptick in injuries — particularly soft tissue injuries — on the NBA’s faster pace of play, coupled with the condensed early-season schedule to account for NBA Cup games. Twenty-three teams entered Wednesday averaging more than 100 possessions per 48 minutes, up from 13 last season.
“(The Warriors’ medical staff) believes that the wear and tear, the speed, the pace, the mileage is factoring into these injuries,” Kerr told reporters Tuesday, via ESPN.com.
The Celtics, despite stated plans to play faster this season, rank last in the NBA in pace and third-to-last in average time of possession, per analytics site Dunks & Threes, though they have upped their aggressiveness on the defensive end.
Boston eventually will encounter injuries that test its unproven depth — no NBA team stays healthy for a full 82-game season — but its path to competitiveness in Tatum’s absence hinges on key players like Brown, Queta, White and Pritchard being in uniform as often as possible.