Last year, the Boston Celtics were absolutely ravaged with injuries in the playoffs, with Kyrie Irving, Gordon Hayward and Daniel Theis all missing the entire 2018 postseason with respective injuries.
The Celtics are quite a bit better off this time around, but that doesn't mean they have a clean bill of health.
Marcus Smart will be out for at least the first round of the playoffs thanks to an oblique injury, Marcus Morris has been nursing a sore knee and Jaylen Brown is dealing with some back issues.
The good news for Boston is that Brown was able to play in the final two games of the regular season and looked pretty good, and on Saturday morning, he said his back is feeling better every day, according to Brian Robb of The Boston Sports Journal.
With Smart sidelined, Brown will be pivotal for the Celtics if they want to make a playoff run, and if he plays anything like he did last spring in helping lead Boston to the Eastern Conference Finals, the C's should be just fine.
On the season overall, the 22-year-old averaged 13 points and 4.2 rebounds over 25.9 minutes per game while shooting 46.5 percent from the floor, 34.4 percent from three-point range and 65.8 percent from the free-throw line.
Brown got progressively better throughout the season following a nightmarish start, and after the All-Star break, he made 50.2 percent of his field-goal attempts and 41.3 percent of his long-distance tries.
The Celtics won 49 games during the regular season, good for fourth place in the Eastern Conference standings. They will play host to the Indiana Pacers in Game 1 of their first-round playoff series on Sunday afternoon.
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