Celtics rookie cleared to play vs. Grizzlies after injury scare

The ankle sprain that sent Hugo Gonzalez to the locker room Tuesday night in Philadelphia proved to be no more than a scare The Celtics rookie did not re-enter his squad s - loss to the ers but he was cleared to play Wednesday night against the Grizzlies after initially being listed as probable He s good to go Mazzulla stated before tipoff at TD Garden adding that Gonzalez would not have a minutes restriction Gonzalez s six minutes against Philly were his fewest in a contest since Oct After being a healthy DNP in Boston s season opener the -year-old briskly emerged as a regular contributor for Boston providing jolts of potential and defensive tenacity off the bench Related Articles What went wrong in Celtics late loss to ers I let my guys down Celtics drop another thriller to ers on late-game putback From Jordan Walsh to Luka Garza Celtics bench shines in win over Magic Celtics seeing progress from new roster amid inconsistent start to season Jaylen Brown says refs made their point in Celtics loss to Magic I ll keep my mouth shut Despite Gonzalez s lack of NBA experience Mazzulla often has tasked him with guarding the opponent s No scoring option The -foot- wing entered Wednesday with the third-best defensive rating among all rookies averaging at least minutes per meeting this season Gonzalez also led all Celtics players entering Wednesday in steals per minutes and he s drawn three offensive fouls tied for second-most on the group behind Derrick White s eight Offensively he came in with a team-best -point field-goal percentage on limited volume -for- this seaosn I think he s in that same category as Jordan Walsh and Josh Minott and the guys that have the responsibility and the expectation to defend the other group s best participant at a high level whether it s their three possessions or an entire event or quarter Mazzulla mentioned So I think as a young guy he s ahead of the curve on his defensive instincts which you don t see a lot from young guys coming into the league His defensive instincts are top-notch his effort is top-notch and he s a defensive playmaker so he s just got to keep getting better at those Memphis primary option typically is Ja Morant but the two-time All-Star point guard was ruled out for Wednesday s matchup with ankle soreness The Grizzlies also were without starting center Zach Edey ankle and reserves Ty Jerome Scottie Pippen Jr and Javon Small The Celtics had their full roster available outside of Jayson Tatum who has yet to play this season as he recovers from Achilles surgery