Al Horford to miss Wednesday’s game vs Phoenix; Jaylen Brown questionable with bruised hand

BRIGHTON - Boston Celtics head coach Brad Stevens said that center Al Horford did not practice with the team on Tuesday afternoon and will miss Wednesday night’s game against the Phoenix Suns, despite “feeling better” and “getting better”. Horford has missed the previous five games with a left knee injury.

Stevens also added that Jaylen Brown is questionable against the Suns due to a bruised right hand. He suffered this injury during his fall against Dallas on November 24. The Celtics head coach called it a “residual” injury from that fall, which was the same incident that caused Brown to miss the next three games with a bruised lower back. He only participated in some portions of Tuesday’s practice.

“Al’s feeling better, getting better,” Stevens said on Tuesday. “Won’t play tomorrow. Reassess pretty much everyday right now and go from there. (He) did not practice today.” Stevens added that it’s important that Horford recovers for the long-run.

“It’s about him feeling good for the rest of the season, so he just needs to feel 100 percent as he goes out and goes through progression and drills and everything else. We did not test him in anything that he failed, by any means. This is part of his progression. We knew he wasn’t going to play tomorrow. If we practice later in the week, there’s a chance that he’ll be able to practice, but I doubt we’ll be out there much now that we start playing every other day.

Stevens also said that Guerschon Yabusele is progressing well and he does not anticipate the forward to be out too much longer. Yabusele suffered a sprained ankle in the Celtics win over the Chicago Bulls on December 8th.

Listen to everything Stevens said after Tuesday’s practice below: