The Boston Celtics continue to shuffle through their center-by-committee arrangement, as reserve center Vincent Poirier is poised to return to action while starting five Daniel Theis will sit with a balky knee.
Theis’ right knee has been a problem for the German big over the last few weeks, with the Salzgitter native often designated ‘questionable’ on the injury report as a result.
The third-year big man has played through the pain up until now, though, with half of the team’s center rotation out injured until today.
Second-year center Robert Williams III has missed nearly a month due to a carefully-managed left hip bone edema that will be re-evaluated in just over two weeks from today, but has not been available even to practice as his doctors have stressed caution for the Texas A&M product.
Poirier, who has missed roughly as much time as Williams, broke his finger in December and appears ready to return in tonight’s tilt with an injury-depleted Chicago.
The Bulls down several key players of their own from three to five, Boston may be viewing this more as a chance to get Theis some time off ahead of a key stretch this month.
With important games on the schedule looming against the league-leading Milwaukee Bucks (Jan. 16) and second-best Los Angeles Lakers (Jan. 20), any rest they can find for their core players will be a boon with two other contests to take care of in the interim.
In related news, the team is sending rookie shooting guard Carsen Edwards to play with the team’s G League affiliate, the Maine Red Claws.
The first-year bench scorer has had a little trouble getting his shot to fall at the NBA level despite success in the G League, so the thought is simply to get the Purdue prospect more minutes and live game action to get those confidence levels up.
