Celtics Injury Report Against Magic Lists One Key Player

BOSTON — Mitchell Robinson is on the injury report ahead of the Celtics’ Sunday afternoon game against the Orlando Magic. Robinson, who hasn’t missed a game this season, is listed as questionable with rest. Outside of Robinson, the only other Celtic on the injury report is Devin Carter, who continues to recover from illness but has rejoined the team.

The Celtics are on the front end of a back-to-back, so Robinson could miss Sunday’s game but lace up on Monday against the Houston Rockets. When the Celtics had their first back-to-back of the season — a Monday game against the Chicago Bulls and a Tuesday game against the Brooklyn Nets — everyone played in both games, though Joe Mazzulla noted that might not always be the case.

“It just depends,” he said. “We trust the sports science team that we have; we trust the competition of those guys. At the same time, our locker room has built on 1-15, 16, or 17 being able to impact winning. It’s just a combination of all those things. At the end of the day, we have to do what gives us the best chance to win. At the same time, keep those guys healthy and validate the whole locker room by putting guys in situations where they gotta win games for us.”

Mitchell Robinson has had a slow start to the Celtics season

So far this season, Robinson has averaged 6.6 points and 4.6 rebounds in 20 minutes per game. He’s started all five games for the Celtics, but has played as many minutes as Neemias Queta, the team’s backup center. But Robinson’s rebounding is substantially down from last season, when he averaged 8.8 rebounds in similar minutes. In Robinson’s minutes so far, the team has been outscored by 26 points. Conversely, in Queta’s minutes, the Celtics have outscored opponents by 52 points, the second-best mark on the team.

Robinson was hard on himself after the season opener, a loss to the Detroit Pistons.

“I played like ass,” he said.

And though his play has improved from that opening game, he’s yet to have quite the impact he had on the New York Knicks. Whether he continues to acclimate and improve his play remains to be seen.