WASHINGTON D.C. — The Celtics are just about whole again. Marcus Smart (reconditioning) and Aaron Nesmith (ankle) were both upgraded from probable to available. Every potential Boston rotation player will suit for the 3:30 p.m. Sunday game against the Wizards.
The lone Celtics still on the injury report are Bol Bol (foot surgery) and P.J. Dozier (ACL surgery), who are both out indefinitely. They’re the two players who came to Boston in the Juancho Hernangomez trade.
The healthy roster means decision time for Boston coach Ime Udoka. The rotation has adapted this season based on COVID-19 and injuries, occasionally allowing one of the bench players to break out. But with the Celtics at 23-24 and looking to string together wins, Udoka will need to make tough choices about who to play and when.
“Hopefully guys stay healthy, we can start to shave down some minutes on other guys and go deeper into the rotation,” Udoka said pregame Sunday. “So at some point it has to balance out and hopefully this is for the rest of the season where it balances out.”
There were some interesting wrinkles that came from Smart’s absence in the past five games. Udoka featured no-point guard lineups at times, putting Jayson Tatum or someone else in the primary ball-handler role. He leaned on that lineup in crunch time last game, though the Celtics collapsed against the Trail Blazers.
While Udoka and the coaching staff have plans going into games, he said it’s all dependent on how the players look. At times, the bench unit or player could bring some energy to a lackluster start. Or someone like Nesmith could catch fire, which is why he provided a jolt in the comeback win over the Pelicans.
“It’s a game-by-game thing that we like to keep guys lower minutes,” Udoka said. “But at the same time, if the flow is not going right in the game we have to find the right unit to get us back in the game and maintain that.”
The Celtics need all the juice they can get with 35 games left in the season. They’re still part of the jam-packed playoff picture in the East, but if the season ended today, they would be in 10th place and headed to the play-in tournament again.
Sunday’s game against the Wizards is also important for tiebreak purposes. Washington comes in at 23-23, just a half-game above the C’s. The Wizards, though, hold the 2-0 tiebreaker edge on the Celtics. Boston plays Washington on Sunday, then hosts them at TD Garden on April 3. If the Wizards win either of those games, that’ll have playoff implications for the rest of the season.
“Coaches, we’re looking at it consistently,” Udoka said of the standings. “It’s something we don’t really talk to the players as much about. They’ll look at it and see it, obviously. But understanding consistency is the main thing, and how we can get a nice stretch of games going, reel off some wins and kind of get, that will take care of itself as far as the standings.”
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