The Celtics will be back at full strength on Tuesday night against the Thunder after Jrue Holiday was removed from the team’s injury report. Holiday sat out Sunday’s win over the Spurs with a sprained elbow. The Celtics still cruised to a blowout win over the Spurs without the veteran guard, cruising against a 5-win San Antonio team while earning plenty of praise from Gregg Popovich.
“They’re a championship-caliber team. That’s what they’re out there for, that’s their goal and they proved it once again. It’s a hell of a team,” Popovich told reporters in San Antonio. “Joe does a great job with them. They got good talent obviously, All-Star talent, and they’ve got the grit, they got the execution and they are getting better all the time. That’s a tough challenge at this particular time for our group.”
Holiday’s return sets the stage for two of the NBA’s hottest teams to match up at full strength on Tuesday night in Oklahoma City. Boston has the NBA’s best record at 26-6 including four straight road wins. Meanwhile, the Thunder are are fully healthy and have surprised the Western Conference with a 22-9 record to begin the year including four straight wins. They are just 1.5 games behind the top-seeded Minnesota Timberwolves in the standings.
Holiday will have a tough defensive matchup on his hands in his return as he and Derrick White will try to contain Shai Gilgeous-Alexander for Oklahoma City, who is averaging over 31 points per game. Rookie Chet Holmgren will also provide a unique challenge for Boston’s frontcourt with his rim protection and 3-point shooting abilities.
The Celtics and Thunder tip off at 8 p.m. ET on Tuesday night in the final game of Boston’s road trip.
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