Wednesday night's matchup between the Boston Celtics and Phoenix Suns will be must-see television. It's a face-off between the top teams in each conference, as the Celtics are 20-5 and the Suns are 16-8. Plus, Suns point guard Chris Paul is expected to return to the lineup after missing a month with a heel injury. Simply put, Celtics-Suns is the game of the night in the NBA. 

But with all that said, the Celtics head into Phoenix with some unfortunate injury news. While Malcolm Brogdon will be good to go after recovering from a non-COVID illness, big man Al Horford isn't so lucky. 

According to ESPN NBA writer Tim Bontemps, Horford will sit out Wednesday's game against the Suns due to health and safety protocols. He also missed Boston's most recent game in Toronto on Monday with lower back stiffness.

Al Horford, 36, is in his 16th year in the NBA and fifth with the Celtics. He's averaging 10.2 points, 6.3 rebounds, 2.8 assists, 1.0 blocks, and 0.5 steals per game across 20 appearances this season. Horford is shooting the three-ball with incredible accuracy thus far, as he's converting 46.6% of his long-range attempts, which is tied for the fifth-best percentage in the NBA among all qualified players. 

With Horford out of the lineup, expect the Celtics to continue to give extra minutes to bigs Luke Kornet and Blake Griffin. Kornet and Griffin both came up big for the Celtics in their win over the Raptors on Monday, as Griffin finished with 13 points and eight rebounds while Kornet contributed 11 points and seven rebounds.