Celtics upgrade Al Horford (concussion) to questionable for Friday's game vs. Hornets

Danny Ainge said on Thursday that he didn't think Al Horford's concussion symptoms were nearly as bad as last season and the team's latest update on the big man seems to indicate that's the case.

After ruling out Horford for Friday's game against the Hornets on Thursday, the team upgraded his status to questionable on Friday afternoon.

The NBA has a strict concussion protocol that requires a player to be symptom-free through strenuous activities on the way back to recovery, so if Horford has any chance of playing tonight, it's safe to assume he's made some serious in-roads already on getting back to full strength.

BSJ Analysis: Even if Horford doesn't play on Friday night, the upgrade in his condition is very good news for the C's on a couple fronts. Horford missed nine games last year due to concussion symptoms in November, so after experiencing a second concussion within a year, there were reasonable concerns that his condition would sideline him for awhile. However, Horford was spotted in the locker room at the TD Garden on Wednesday night, a sign that he was feeling better than most anticipated.

“He had minor symptoms, but we were hoping that they would go away," Ainge told Toucher and Rich on Thursday. "I don’t think this is as bad of a concussion he had last year, but listen, with a concussion you just have to be really cautious. The symptoms got a little bit worse over the course of a couple of days. But they’re not bad. I thought the day after the incident that he probably was going to be able to play. But it just got a little worse yesterday so we just sat him out.”

With the recent progress, it's looking like a matter of days, not weeks, that Horford will be back on the floor and that's big for a Celtics team that has the Raptors and Warriors on the schedule in the coming week.

Jayson Tatum is also questionable for Friday's game with a sore ankle. Updates on both players will be available here at BSJ about two hours before gametime on Friday night.