Four-fifths of the Celtics’ starting lineup could be unavailable when the team visits Charlotte on Sunday.
Boston listed Jayson Tatum (right Achilles repair management), Jaylen Brown (left Achilles tendonitis), Derrick White (right knee contusion) and Neemias Queta (right thumb sprain) as questionable for their matchup with the Hornets.
Backup center Nikola Vucevic was ruled out for the 11th straight game as he recovers from a fractured ring finger.
Brown, who’s on pace for one of the best statistical seasons in franchise history, sat out Friday’s 109-102 win over the Atlanta Hawks. Head coach Joe Mazzulla declined to share details about his injury, saying only that Brown was considered “day to day.”
White and Queta were listed as questionable against Atlanta before being upgraded to available. The former has played in 70 of Boston’s 73 games this season; the latter, 69.
Tatum has made 10 appearances since returning from Achilles surgery on March 6. The Celtics seemingly have removed his minutes restriction — he logged a season-high 37 minutes against the Hawks, tallying 26 points, 12 rebounds and five assists — but with the team set to play in Atlanta on Monday, it would not be surprising to see Mazzulla sit his recently recovered star for one end of the back-to-back to avoid overburdening him.
Tatum, who’s shooting just 38.3% this season, admitted after Friday’s game that he still felt “rusty” following his nearly 10-month layoff.
“I’m thankful that I’ve got teammates and a coaching staff that are patient with me in this moment as I’m trying to just figure it out,” he said.
The players not listed on Boston’s latest injury report were Sam Hauser, Payton Pritchard, Baylor Scheierman, Hugo Gonzalez, Jordan Walsh, Luka Garza, Ron Harper Jr., Amari Williams, Max Shulga, Charles Bassey and John Tonje.
With a 1 1/2-game lead over the New York Knicks for the No. 2 seed in the Eastern Conference, Mazzulla will need to strike a balance between optimal playoff positioning and finding rest opportunities for his key players over Boston’s final nine regular-season games.
“We’re just always going to do what gives us the best chance to win every single night, and I think that’s just how we have to do it regardless,” the coach said Friday. “Even when (Boston’s playoff seeding) was (locked up in years past), we still did what gave us the best chance to win. I think we just stay consistent in that.”
The Celtics have proven they can succeed while shorthanded this season, winning games with 15 different starting lineups. They’re 41-22 in games without Tatum and 7-1 without Brown.
Charlotte, though, would be a challenging matchup for even a full-strength Boston squad. The Hornets blew out the Celtics 118-89 at TD Garden on March 4, part of a run of 23 victories in their last 29 games.
Since the start of 2026, the Hornets and Celtics rank first and fourth in the NBA in net rating, respectively.