The Celtics listed no one on their injury report for their game against the Hornets on April 7, beginning the final week of the regular season without a single reported injury. It is only the third time head coach Joe Mazzulla has had his entire roster at his disposal.
For most of the season, Jayson Tatum was listed as out while recovering from his ruptured Achilles injury. His return on March 6 was the first time the Celtics had no injuries to report, but Nikola Vucevic broke his right ring finger two minutes into Tatum’s season debut. He remained on the report until Sunday, when the team defeated the Raptors, 115-101, in a tightly contested game until it pulled away in the fourth quarter.
Vucevic logged 13 minutes Sunday, scoring four points on 2-of-5 shooting with four rebounds. He has been a crucial piece to increasing the Celtics’ big-man depth since the NBA trade deadline, averaging 9.9 points and 6.9 rebounds in 21.0 minutes per game over 13 outings.
Boston has four games remaining this season, including a contest at New York on Thursday. It is competing with the Knicks for the No. 2 seed in the Eastern Conference, as its magic number to clinch the second seed is two with four games remaining. The Celtics cannot finish worse than the No. 3 seed, according to the NBA.
The Knicks will play the Hawks on Monday night, their first of their final four games. Any combination of a Knicks loss and Celtics win throughout the final week of the regular season will yield Boston the No. 2 seed. If the Knicks go undefeated, the Celtics must win two games to clinch second place.
If the Celtics finish as the No. 2 seed, they will not know who their opponent is until after the first game of the NBA Play-In Tournament. The Hawks, 76ers, Raptors, Hornets, Magic and Heat are all possibilities for the Celtics to face in the first round.
Boston is 15-6 against those teams with a game remaining against the Hornets and Magic.