Jaylen Brown (back) is out against Pelicans so who starts?

The Celtics reconvened for shootaround on Monday morning in New Orleans ahead of their showdown with Anthony Davis tonight, putting the final preparation in place for the matchup that will come without Jaylen Brown for Boston. The shooting guard suffered a bruised back after taking a hard fall in the closing moments on Saturday's loss against the Mavericks. X-Rays came out negative but the 22-year-old is 'very sore' according to Brad Stevens so he will watch the finale of the road trip from the sidelines.

Thankfully for Brown and the Celtics, the schedule eases up in a big way after tonight from a volume standpoint. There are just three games played over the next week and a half, including a three-day break from tonight until the next matchup (Friday). That window should give Brown plenty of time to heal without further aggravating the injury.

In the meantime though, the Celtics are still in search of consistency after an uneven 20 games to start the year. Brad Stevens has made a number of tweaks to the starting lineup in recent weeks, moving Gordon Hayward to the bench while trying out starting lineups that include Aron Baynes and Marcus Morris.

With Brown out of the mix on Saturday night, a few possibilities remain in play for the C's, including one I have wanted to see for a couple weeks now. Let's look at what Stevens will be weighing as he adjusts to Brown's absence:

Option 1: Start Marcus Smart. The C's have lacked continually lacked urgency with the start to their games and inserting the team's best defensive player into the mix might help address that issue. There is a long list of reasons that the point guard should be given a shot at this role but trying to slow down Jrue Holiday tonight will be the top of that list. That's a tall task for Kyrie Irving and there are other secondary pieces that Irving is better of hiding against (Wesley Johnson, E'Twaun Moore) in the Pelicans lineup. The Smart/Irving backcourt has seen plenty of success in the past and tonight might be a good time to get an extended look at them together.

Option 2: Start Gordon Hayward. The swingman has been playing some of his best basketball since returning in the past week, even though it has in a bench role. The Pelicans don't have a ton of speed on the wing in Moore or Johnson so Hayward should be able to handle those defensive assignments despite his mobility limitations. However, Stevens might not want to mess with a good thing that Hayward has going with the reserves, especially if Hayward is going to go back to the bench anyway whenever Brown returns.

Option 3: Start Semi Ojeleye. He got the nod in the only other game the C's played without Brown this year (a win over the Bucks) and provided a nice mix of outside shooting and sound defense there. If Stevens does not want to disrupt the rotation at all, it's easy to see this as a path. Ojeleye's on/off numbers continue to look phenomenal so he's going to be getting some minutes in this game either way, but this would be a chance for Stevens to get a longer look at an unconventional lineup for Boston featuring the second-round pick being flanked by a number of top scorers in Irving, Tatum and Horford.

Go big or small?

One other choice Stevens will need to make in this game is whether to go big or small at the center spot. The guess here is that Al Horford will draw that straw and be matched up against Anthony Davis due to his ability to score anywhere on the floor, an assignment Aron Baynes may not be best for. With another stretch four (Nikola Mirotic) lurking in the starting five, the C's are going to need a pair of mobile bigs in there to help contain the Pelicans' top-5 offense.

No matter what route the C's choose, they are going to have to put up some serious points tonight. New Orleans has a bottom-5 defense and is the second-best offense at home in the NBA so they have the ability to make things ugly quickly if the C's aren't playing to their potential on both ends. With Brown out, a different look with the starters might help them avoid fighting an uphill battle for most of the night.