BOSTON — Boston Celtics president of basketball operations Brad Stevens said Friday he doesn’t anticipate All-Star Jaylen Brown missing a significant amount of time after suffering a broken bone in his face.
Stevens said Brown has been fitted with a mask. Brown was diagnosed with a maxillary fracture after he took an inadvertent elbow from Jayson Tatum on Wednesday while going for a rebound during Boston’s win over Philadelphia.
Brown was sitting Friday night with Boston hosting Charlotte and will be evaluated over the next few days. That will determine how long he will be sidelined.
“He’s still feeling it. It doesn’t feel great. We’ll see how he feels when he starts moving around,” Stevens said. “Then we’ll get together early in the week and kind of figure out what’s next. But it doesn’t look like it’s going to be too long, which is a good thing.”
Stevens also said point guard Marcus Smart, who will miss his ninth straight game Friday with a sprained right ankle, continues to get closer to a return but still is experiencing pain.
Boston (36-16) entered Friday with the best record in the the NBA.
After Friday, Boston has three games remaining before the All-Star break — vs. the Memphis Grizzlies on Sunday, at the Milwaukee Bucks on Tuesday and vs. the Detroit Pistons on Wednesday.
Information from The Associated Press was used in this report.