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Tim BontempsESPN
BOSTON — The Boston Celtics will sit five players out of Monday night’s game against the New Orleans Pelicans at TD Garden — including Kyrie Irving, Al Horford and Gordon Hayward.
Anthony Davis, meanwhile, is set to start and have no restriction on his minutes for the Pelicans after being listed as questionable with a right hip contusion.
Irving, who injured his right shoulder in the fourth quarter of Thursday’s win over the Knicks, played 23 minutes in Saturday’s evisceration of the Chicago Bulls, but Stevens said he woke up Monday morning with shoulder stiffness, and Boston chose to be cautious with their star guard.
“Kyrie, I think, is going to be fine long term,” Stevens said. “He felt a little bit of stiffness today … I would expect that he’ll be day-to-day.”
Hayward, meanwhile, is out with an illness – not anything to do with his recovery from the gruesome leg and ankle injuries he suffered six minutes into last year’s season opener that caused him to miss the remainder of the 2017-18 campaign.
Perhaps most concerning, however, is the absence of Horford, who will have now missed four of Boston’s last eight games due to an ongoing bout with patellar tendinitis in his left knee.
Horford had previously sat out one game and then come back, before sitting out Saturday’s win in Chicago and now Monday night’s game against New Orleans. But Stevens indicated this stint on the sidelines may be longer, in order to allow Horford to try to get completely over the tendinitis.
“Al has patellar tendinitis that he’s just been dealing with for a while,” Stevens said. “And so we’re going to see how this goes. He’s day-to-day right now but we may go slowly with him.”
In addition to Boston’s three stars sitting out, the Celtics will also be without center Aron Baynes and forward Guerschon Yabusele against the Pelicans, as both are dealing with ankle sprains. Baynes, like Irving, initially suffered his injury against the Knicks, but unlike him didn’t play against Chicago. Stevens said he’d gotten better – but not good enough to play.
Yabusele, meanwhile, suffered a nasty looking right ankle sprain in Chicago, and Stevens indicated it will be weeks before the second-year forward will be ready to return.
“Not even close to playing,” Stevens said.
“[It’s] not a high ankle sprain, which is good news. [But] the window is going to be at least a few weeks.”
With all the absences, the Celtics will start Terry Rozier, Marcus Smart, Jayson Tatum, Marcus Morris and Daniel Theis against the Pelicans, and activated P.J. Dozier, who is on a two-way contract, to give the team added depth.
“I think we already know a lot about the guys, some of the guys that are going to have to step up for us, they’ve done that before,” Stevens said. “But it’ll be good to learn about some of the guys that haven’t been in this situation.
“It’s a great opportunity for all those guys. That’s what the NBA — you go to bed one night and you’re not in the rotation, the next morning you wake up, you better be ready to play.”
While Davis is slated to play for the Pelicans, guard E’Twuan Moore won’t play. Moore has been playing through a calf issue, and New Orleans chose to give him a night off to rest it. Guard Elfrid Payton also remains out with a fractured finger.