The Boston Celtics have been preparing to enter this season without Jayson Tatum, but now the status of his longtime co-star, Jaylen Brown, is uncertain as well. Brown, Boston’s clear-cut No. 1 option while Tatum recovers from Achilles surgery, exited Wednesday night’s preseason finale at TD Garden with what the team described as left hamstring tightness.
Brown suffered the injury midway through the first quarter. Roughly a minute after falling awkwardly on a drive to the basket, he grabbed his hamstring, called for a substitution, and walked off toward the locker room. The Celtics announced Brown was doubtful to return, and he did not re-enter the game. He finished with seven points, two rebounds, and one steal in seven minutes.
In Brown’s absence, Derrick White made a significant impact, stuffing the stat sheet, while Neemias Queta played his best game of the preseason. The Celtics narrowly defeated the Toronto Raptors 110-108 on a last-second basket by Xavier Tillman.
However, the main story heading into next Wednesday’s regular-season opener against the Philadelphia 76ers is Brown’s availability.
### Potential Starting Lineups
The Celtics started a lineup of Payton Pritchard, Derrick White, Jaylen Brown, Chris Boucher, and Neemias Queta against the Raptors — a possible preview of their starting five on opening night if Brown is healthy.
If Brown misses time, the most logical starting lineup would feature Pritchard, White, Sam Hauser, Boucher, and Queta. Hauser, who started against Cleveland on Sunday, did not dress for Wednesday’s game.
### Facing Toronto’s Starters
Toronto started its top unit of Brandon Ingram, Scottie Barnes, Immanuel Quickley, RJ Barrett, and Jakob Poeltl in this game. This marked the first time the Celtics faced an opponent’s starters during the preseason, as their first three opponents had rested most of their regulars.
White, one of only two returning starters from last season’s team along with Brown, stood out on both ends of the floor. He finished with 32 points, nine rebounds, six assists, four blocks, and just one turnover in 35 minutes.
No other Celtics player reached double digits until Anfernee Simons scored 14 points on 4-of-13 shooting and hit a crucial three-pointer with 2:53 remaining.
### Individual Performances
Pritchard struggled from the field, going 1-for-11 and 0-for-8 from three-point range. However, he made all eight of his free throws, dished out 10 assists, and posted a team-best plus-19 rating.
After seeing limited minutes in the first three preseason games, Queta impressed against the Raptors with four blocks and 12 rebounds, including five offensive boards. The Celtics’ lone 7-footer also scored eight points on 4-of-7 shooting, highlighted by a series of nifty post moves to score over Barnes in the second quarter.
Even with Hauser out of uniform, the Celtics utilized 12 different players in the opening quarter alone. Simons, Josh Minott, and Luka Garza entered at the 6:42 mark, followed by Jordan Walsh and Hugo Gonzalez, then Xavier Tillman and Baylor Scheierman.
### Depth and Rotation Strategy
It’s unclear how many of those reserves will see regular minutes this season, but head coach Joe Mazzulla hinted at the possibility of employing a deep rotation—or as he put it before the game, “no rotation at all”—to maximize the strengths of Boston’s new, less experienced roster.
“I don’t know that we’ll have one throughout the entire year,” Mazzulla said. “Listen, every time you have a team, a strength and a weakness can be very similar to those things, right? And I think one of our strengths is the depth that we have. We may have limited experience, we may have newness, but I think we have depth. And I think the ability to not have a rotation is a strength, because you can go to fresh guys, you can go to a bunch of different guys, you can do a bunch of different things. We’re in the, obviously, early stages of that, but I’m not sure that we will have one, and I think that actually could be a good thing for us throughout the season.”
### Frontcourt and Wing Depth Concerns
The Celtics are especially unproven in the frontcourt, where they’ll rely on Queta, Boucher, Garza, and Tillman to fill the void left by Kristaps Porzingis, Al Horford, and Luke Kornet. On the wing behind Brown and Hauser, four young players—Minott, Walsh, Scheierman, and Gonzalez—are competing for minutes, all logging at least 11 minutes Wednesday night.
After the Celtics took a 106-94 lead with 1:53 remaining, Mazzulla opted to close with a lineup featuring Minott, Scheierman, and Gonzalez against Toronto’s backups. Although that group could not hold the lead amid several late Boston turnovers, Xavier Tillman’s game-winning 11-footer with 8.9 seconds left sealed the victory and sent the TD Garden crowd home happy.
Tillman, who also drained a clutch three-pointer earlier in the fourth quarter, was the only Boston reserve to finish with a positive plus/minus in the win.
https://www.bostonherald.com/2025/10/15/jaylen-brown-leaves-with-injury-as-celtics-beat-raptors-in-preseason-finale/
