BOSTON — Baylor Scheierman ran into Egor Demin in the second quarter of Boston’s win over the Brooklyn Nets and immediately grabbed at his left thumb.
It turns out, the thumb was fractured.
Here’s the sequence where Baylor Scheierman appeared to injure his thumb colliding with Egor Demin.
Scheierman stayed in the game after a timeout and simply taped the thumb. He was still running through screens and making shots after. Played 13+ more minutes overall. pic.twitter.com/Bxy18FAnIV
— Chris Forsberg (@ChrisForsberg_) March 1, 2026
“My thumb just kind of went into his chest,” Scheierman explained before the Celtics matchup with the Philadelphia 76ers on Sunday night. “It just hurt, and I looked down, and it just kind of felt weird and it kind of just locked. And I was able to kind of unlock it and get it loose again, and then taped it up and just finished the game.”
Scheierman couldn't explain the exact injury, other than to say they told him it was “some kind of big-name thing,” but that's not anything that he’s concerned about. Right now, it’s about figuring out how to play with the thumb on his shooting hand in a splint and wrapped with tape.
“I’ve never really played with it,” Scheierman said. “But I got some shots in this morning, this afternoon, and feel ready to go.”
Scheierman has found success in the regular rotation for the Celtics, starting nine of his last 10 games. All three of his double-doubles have come during this stretch, and his rebounding has been part of Boston’s big turnaround in that department. They're currently jostling with Denver at the top of the defensive rebounding rankings, currently second at 74.2%.
“His rebounding outside of his area is big,” Joe Mazzulla recently said. “So whether he's boxing the guy out or whether he's on the perimeter, he comes back and crashes defensively and gets those, and so that helps us get out in transition, but I think he's playing at a great level for us defensively, and really on the rebounding piece on both ends.”
But as Scheierman knows all too well, missing time could mean missing out on a future opportunity. Josh Minott’s recent ankle injury sealed his fate as he was falling out of the rotation. It’s unlikely that Scheierman would suffer a similar fate, but he’s not taking any chances. It’s still possible that he’ll miss time with the injury, but he’ll play as long as he can with it and hope it feels okay/
“We're kind of just evaluating it as it goes,” Scheierman said. “But I feel good enough to be out there, and so it's kind of how it's going to be. I'm not going to sit out.”