BOSTON — Brandin Podziemski’s status on the official injury report Wednesday morning was “available.” In the afternoon, he got downgraded to questionable with an illness. Then before Wednesday night’s game between the Warriors and Celtics in the TD Garden, the Warriors ruled the guard out.
Podziemski left Monday’s game in Washington D.C. with an illness. He said he felt dizzy and lightheaded, which began at the start of the game and persisted on-and-off until the end of the game, but didn’t get an official diagnosis. He subbed himself out one minute into the third quarter when his symptoms were too much to play through and didn’t return.
“He’s still sick,” Warriors head coach Steve Kerr said pregame. “That impacts the game significantly for us. So we’ve got to figure out how to we’re going to kind of piece together the lineup behind Steph.”
Podziemski, 21, is averaging 9.3 points, 5.3 rebounds and 4.0 assists per game. He ranks third in the NBA in plus-minus, a metric that shows how impactful he is when he’s on the court.
“He’s still feeling the effects,” Kerr said. “Whatever it is. Whether it’s a viral thing, who knows? He’s not feeling well, and we’re holding him out. He’s dying to play, and we’re holding him up.”
De’Anthony Melton (back) is also out for the Warriors. He’s set to get re-evaluated on Thursday after participating in 3-on-3 at the end of morning shootaround Wednesday. Podziemski likewise participated in shootaround.
On the other side, Jaylen Brown (hip) has been ruled out for Boston as well as Kristaps Porzingis, who is sidelined indefinitely.
Steph Curry, who played on a 24-minute restriction in his first game back from an ankle sprain that knocked him out for three contests, is once again active. Kerr said he’s not necessarily on a minutes restriction against Boston, but they’re not going to push it after he missed a week and is still ramping up in-game endurance.
Notable
— Kerr said he didn’t need to address the team after Donald Trump won the U.S. presidential election on Tuesday, a result that he and many within the team are unsatisfied with. He joked that he told the team in their morning meeting, “Let’s make America great again and beat the Celtics.”
“I believe in democracy,” Kerr said, in seriousness. “The American people have spoken and voted for Trump. I want him to do well the next four years. I want our country to do well. I believe in the will of the people, and I’ll do everything I can to support my country and our government. And I want nothing for the best for us.”
— The Celtics enter Wednesday night with a 121.8 offensive rating that leads the NBA. Last year, they set the NBA record in the metric, which measures scoring efficiency. They’re taking more than 50 3-pointers per game and often deploy a five-out style with lineups in which every player is capable of shooting from distance.
— Kerr is expected to face the biggest round of boos in his career as Celtics fans remain upset that he didn’t play Jayson Tatum minutes to their liking during Team USA’s run to gold.
Kerr said he doesn’t regret the way he handled the staff, and that he can’t control the narrative his coaching decisions created.
“I don’t think anybody actually cared enough about me to boo me,” Kerr said when asked what the loudest he’s been boo’d was. “We’ll see how it goes tonight. I’m sure, also, a lot of Celtics fans are going to cheer me for being part of Team USA, bringing a gold medal for our country. I’m a patriotic American, I love my country. Three Celtics who were on my team won a world championship and two months later won a gold medal. Pretty incredible stuff. People can write about whatever they want to write about.”