Celtics wing Josh Minott missed his second consecutive game Friday night.
Boston ruled Minott out for its matchup against the Toronto Raptors at TD Garden with a left ankle sprain. Asked about Minott’s prognosis during his pregame news conference, Celtics head coach Joe Mazzulla said he had “no idea” how the 23-year-old suffered his injury.
“He’s got an ankle sprain,” Mazzulla said. “We’ll take it day by day and see how he gets better.”
Minott fell out of Mazzulla’s rotation before his injury. Over a six-game stretch from Dec. 26 to Jan. 5, he saw the floor just once, logging three garbage-time minutes in a blowout win over the Los Angeles Clippers. He was a consistent contributor earlier in the season, appearing in 28 of Boston’s first 29 games with 10 starts.
Minott was not on the bench for Wednesday’s loss to the Denver Nuggets.
The only other Celtics player unavailable for Friday’s game was Jayson Tatum, who has yet to debut this season as he works his way back from Achilles surgery. The Raptors were missing three starters, ruling out Jakob Poeltl (back), Brandon Ingram (thumb) and Scottie Barnes (knee).
Ingram is Toronto’s leading scorer this season (21.8 points per game). Barnes leads the team in rebounds (8.4 per game), steals (1.3) and blocks (1.5).
“Next man up,” Raptors head coach Darko Rajakovic said pregame. “We’ve got to play to our standard.”
The 23-13 Celtics entered the Atlantic Division clash with the third-best record in the Eastern Conference. Toronto sat just one game back in fourth place.
