We basically have a clean injury report today with all out tags, so there’s really nothing to “watch” today when it comes to making lineups and thinking about late swaps. We’ll still be updating the blog if there’s anything that’s noteworthy on something like a starting lineup change.
Kemba Walker had some contact to his knee in Game 1 on Sunday, but he stayed in the game and looked fine after a few minutes of flexing his leg and grimacing. Walker said his knee was sore on Sunday night, but he got some treatment on it and he felt “really good” on Monday. He even dropped an “actually” when talking about feeling good, so it was almost like he was surprised that maybe the soreness went away. Coach Brad Stevens said Kemba went through a full practice, so he should be good to go for a full workload. Kemba’s defense in Game 1 was terrific, but he may struggle a bit against an elite Toronto PNR defense.
Gary Harris said he was a little tired after his first game in five months. After weeks of being shady on the topic, we found out Harris suffered his injury last month just after arriving to Orlando. Harris’ defense on Jordan Clarkson was key and Harris didn’t allow Clarkson to shoot against him per the matchup data. He was at 21 minutes in Game 6, and he might be in the upper 20s with most of his time on Clarkson. There likely won’t be too many shots for him, so he’s only a GPP option at best.
Kyle Lowry‘s ankle looked fine, but foul trouble got him a bit in Game 1. Coach Nick Nurse may not want to put him on Jayson Tatum as much to help put Lowry in a better position on offense. He got off to a really slow start and had some really sloppy turnovers, so expect a better performance from Lowry today.
Boston Celtics vs. Toronto Raptors
Gordon Hayward (ankle), Javonte Green (knee) and Tremont Waters (knee) are all out.
Oshae Brissett (knee) and Patrick McCaw (knee) are out.
Utah Jazz vs. Denver Nuggets
Will Barton (knee) and Vlatko Cancar (foot) are out.
Ed Davis (knee) and Justin Wright-Foreman (NWT) are out.
