{"id":707605,"date":"2026-04-10T19:00:26","date_gmt":"2026-04-10T19:00:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/707605\/"},"modified":"2026-04-10T19:00:26","modified_gmt":"2026-04-10T19:00:26","slug":"pelicans-rule-out-8-players-before-celtics-matchup","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/707605\/","title":{"rendered":"Pelicans Rule Out 8 Players Before Celtics Matchup"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Boston Celtics<\/a> may not face the steepest competition when they host the New Orleans Pelicans on Friday night.<\/p>\n

New Orleans released a lengthy injury report<\/a> for Friday’s game at TD Garden. Eliminated from playoff contention at 26-54, the Pelicans aren’t exactly putting their best foot forward.<\/p>\n

The Pelicans ruled out Zion Williamson, Dejounte Murray,\u00a0Trey Murphy, Saddiq Bey, Herb Jones, Yves Missi, Bryce McGowens and\u00a0Karlo Matkovic. They initially listed Bey, Jones and Matkovic as questionable on Thursday.<\/p>\n

That means the Pelicans won’t play their top-four scorers. Jeremiah Fears and Derik Queen are the only active players who have started more than seven games for them this season.<\/p>\n

Williamson had stayed healthier than usual, logging his second-highest tally in seven seasons by playing 62 games. New Orleans listed the 25-year-old on its injury report with a right knee issue and injury management, so the former No. 1 pick’s season could be over.<\/p>\n

Murray has played just 14 games in his second season with the Pelicans. The All-Star guard most recently tallied nine points and eight assists in an April 2 loss to the Portland Trail Blazers.<\/p>\n

Murray will miss his third straight game with a right ankle injury, and Bey and Jones are both receiving a rest day.<\/p>\n

The Pelicans don’t appear to be treating the stretch run with much urgency. They lost eight straight games before dropping 95 points in the second half of Tuesday’s 156-137 win over the Utah Jazz, who also sat out key players in a race to the bottom of the NBA standings.<\/p>\n

Fears seized the moment by scoring 40 points on Tuesday. Second-round rookie Micah Peavy registered a career-high 20 points in his second career start, and Jordan Hawkins delivered 25 points off the bench.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, the Celtics ruled out<\/a> Jayson Tatum after playing 40 minutes<\/a> in Thursday’s loss to the New York Knicks. Jaylen Brown is questionable to return from Achilles tendonitis as Boston seeks to clinch the Atlantic division as the No. 2 seed in the Eastern Conference.<\/p>\n

Friday’s game starts at 7:30 p.m. ET on NBC Sports Boston.<\/p>\n

More NBA:\u00a0Where Celtics’ Jaylen Brown Ranks In Anonymous MVP Player Poll<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Boston Celtics may not face the steepest competition when they host the New Orleans Pelicans on Friday…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":707606,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3796],"tags":[7,6,478,470,4073,4072,675],"class_list":{"0":"post-707605","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-orleans-pelicans","8":"tag-basketball","9":"tag-nba","10":"tag-new-orleans","11":"tag-new-orleans-pelicans","12":"tag-neworleans","13":"tag-neworleanspelicans","14":"tag-pelicans"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/116381956824218006","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/707605","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=707605"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/707605\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/707606"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=707605"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=707605"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=707605"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}