The Celtics will go for their fourth straight win at the TD Garden on Friday night but they will likely be down three rotation pieces for a matchup against the lowly Knicks. Enes Kanter will miss his fourth consecutive game as he recovers from a bruised knee. Kanter did take part in some on-court activities at Friday's shootaround but remains a few days away from being cleared for action.
Elsewhere, Jaylen Brown also missed shootaround due to illness, putting him in danger of missing his second straight game. Robert Williams was a late addition to the injury report as well due to a hip issue that popped up during Wednesday's win over the Bucks.
“Still sick," Brad Stevens said of Brown. "Going to see the doctor again today. Didn’t participate in shootaround. I don’t know what he’s going to be listed at, but I would say doubtful to out, somewhere around there.”
With two-way players Tacko Fall and Tremont Waters at training camp with the Maine Red Claws, the Celtics will be down to just 12 active players for the Knicks matchup if all three players are declared out. Daniel Theis will earn a start again at center after a sharp effort against the Bucks on Wednesday while Grant Williams and Vincent Poirier will be in line for some minutes against a Knicks frontcourt that contains plenty of elite rebounders in Julius Randle, Bobby Portis and Mitchell Robinson.
"We’ve been dealing with injuries for the last two years since I got here, so even then, we knew when somebody gets hurt, we knew that the next guy as to step up," Theis said. "We know that coach trust everybody that’s on the roster, so he’s not shy to throw somebody in there whenever he feels like it."
Brad Stevens has been pleased with what he's seen from the younger guys as opportunities have popped up.
"I think it’s been good," Stevens said. "We’ve played some of those guys some minutes, like 38 minutes in two of the last three games for a couple of guys. So that’s something we’re just continuing to figure out where our best groups are off the bench. I thought our guys did a good job the other night that were called upon. We’ve talked about Semi’s defense the other night, I thought that was really important. I thought Grant, Brad, and Carsen all gave us good minutes, although they didn’t go to as many guys in the second half. And Rob Williams was really good. We’ll just continue to do things by committee with those groups as we get more comfortable with how to best attack on the other end."
Marcus Morris returns to the Garden
The veteran forward will see his former Celtic teammates for the second time this year but should receive a nice ovation from the Garden crowd after he signed with the Knicks in free agency.
Jayson Tatum was one of his closest teammates while Morris was on the team and appreciated the guidance he got from his former running mate.
“It was cool seeing him," Tatum said of the matchup last week. "He was my teammate for two years. Personally, he kind of took me under his wing while he was here. (He showed me) a sense of leadership. He was a bully but in a good way. A sense of toughness. And he could just score. I learned a lot from him working out with him after practice and things like that. He’s been in the league a long time, been very successful, and just taking care of himself and keep working on his game.”
Morris signed a one-year $15 million deal with New York and will likely be on the trade block as a possible rental for contenders in the winter if the Knicks slow start continues.
Tatum's slow start inside the arc
While the third-year forward is averaging 21.5 points from the field, he's shooting a horrific 31.5 percent on his 2-point attempts so far, which has dragged down his field goal percentage below 40 percent despite a hot start from downtown. A big part of those struggles have come at the rim and with floaters in the paint, (25 percent from 3-16 feet) and Tatum is working on trying to adapt the quality of his attempts in those spots.
