The Boston Celtics are going to be down a couple of starters for their Saturday night tilt with the Phoenix Suns. Jaylen Brown will miss his second straight game with a thumb sprain while Kemba Walker will miss the game with a sore left knee.
Walker's injury popped up on Friday and he was deemed questionable for this contest before ultimately being ruled out. And before the game, Stevens provided an update on Walker and confirmed that he had gotten an MRI.
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"Kemba got ahold of our doctors last night and said he had some knee soreness," Stevens said. "Went and got an MRI today, didn’t show anything structurally wrong, but very sore."
Though he will miss the game against the Suns, Brad Stevens isn't worried about Walker's injury sidelining him for too long.
"I don’t get the impression it’s a long-term thing," Stevens said.
This is good news for the Celtics as Walker has unsurprisingly been one of the team's most important players this season. He leads the team in scoring averaging 22.1 points per game and in Thursday's game against the Bucks, his 40-point effort was the only thing that kept the Celtics competitive. Stevens even admitted that after the contest.
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And with a key matchup against the Los Angeles Lakers approaching on Monday night, the Celtics need to be as close to full strength as possible as they look to beat their long-time rival. So hopefully, Walker will be able to play.
We'll soon see how the Celtics are able to fare down both Walker and Brown. In his stead, the contributions of Marcus Smart and Gordon Hayward as playmakers will be more important than usual, as Walker was also averaging a team-leading 4.9 assists per game.
Don't miss NBC Sports Boston's coverage of Suns-Celtics, which begins Saturday at 6:30 p.m. with Celtics Pregame Live, followed by tip-off at 7 p.m. You can also stream the game on the MyTeams App.