The Celtics are coming off perhaps their best game of the season as they had a convincing 119-109 victory over the streaking Oklahoma City Thunder Thursday night. The Celtics fell behind by double digits early in the game before turning things around thanks to their solid defense and a 31-point effort by team leader Jaylen Brown.
However, a day after that game, the Celtics have a fairly substantial injury report, that includes Brown (left calf tightness), Neemias Queta (right thumb sprain) and Derrick White (right knee confusion). Those three players are all listed as questionable for the Celtics' home game Friday night against the Atlanta Hawks.
In addition to that trio, recently acquired Nikola Vucevic remains out of action with a right ring finger fracture.
The Celtics remain in second place in the Eastern Conference and they are 4 games behind the first-place Detroit Pistons. They have a narrow 1/2 game lead over the third-place New York Knicks, but any slippage by the Celtics will give the Knicks an opportunity to overtake them in the standings.
If seeds hold in the opening round of the NBA playoffs, the No. 2 seed will have home-court advantage over the No. 3 seed in the second round. The Knicks eliminated the Celtics last season in the second round even though the Celtics had the homecourt edge in the series. The Knicks won the first two games in Boston after the Celtics blew significant leads in both games.
After the Celtics won Game 3 in New York, Jayson Tatum suffered his season-ending Achilles injury and the Knicks proceeded to win the series.
