Jaylen Brown leaves with injury as Celtics beat Raptors in preseason finale

The Celtics have been preparing to enter this season without Jayson Tatum Now the status of his longtime co-star is up in the air Jaylen Brown Boston s clear-cut No option while Tatum recovers from Achilles surgery exited Wednesday night s preseason finale at TD Garden with what the organization called left hamstring tightness Brown suffered the injury midway through the first quarter Roughly a minute after falling awkwardly on a drive to the basket he grabbed at his hamstring called for a sub and walked off toward the locker room The Celtics stated Brown was doubtful to return and he did not finishing with seven points two rebounds and one steal in seven minutes Derrick White stuffed the stat sheet in Brown s absence Neemias Queta played his best event of the preseason and the Celtics beat the Toronto Raptors - on a last-second basket by Xavier Tillman But the lead story heading into next Wednesday s regular-season opener against the Philadelphia ers now will be Brown s availability The Celtics started a lineup of Payton Pritchard White Brown Chris Boucher and Queta against the Raptors a realizable preview of what their starting five could look like on opening night if Brown is healthy The other realistic candidate to start is Sam Hauser who did not dress for Wednesday s contest after starting against Cleveland on Sunday If Brown misses time a starting lineup of Pritchard White Hauser Boucher and Queta would be the majority of logical grouping Toronto started its top unit of Brandon Ingram Scottie Barnes Immanuel Quickley RJ Barrett and Jakob Poeltl making this the first time the Celtics faced an opponent s starters this preseason Boston s first three foes rested bulk of their regulars White one of two returning starters from last season s gang along with Brown was a standout at both ends finishing with points nine rebounds six assists four blocks and one turnover in minutes No other Celtic reached double figures until Anfernee Simons points on -of- shooting hit a -pointer with remaining Pritchard went -for- from the field and -for- from three but he made all eight of his free throws dished out assists and was a team-best plus- After playing fewer minutes than expected over Boston s first three preseason games Queta also delivered against the Raptors with four blocks and rebounds including five offensive boards The Celtics lone -footer also had eight points on -of- shooting headlined by a series of nifty post moves to beat Barnes on one second-quarter bucket Even with Hauser not in uniform the Celtics used different players in the opening quarter Simons Josh Minott and Luka Garza entered in the first round of substitutions at the mark followed by Jordan Walsh and Hugo Gonzalez then Tillman then Baylor Scheierman It s not clear how plenty of of those reserves will see regular minutes this season but head coach Joe Mazzulla suggested he could employ a deep rotation or as he put it pregame no rotation at all to play to the strengths of his new less experienced roster I don t know that we ll have one throughout the entire year Mazzulla declared Listen every time you have a band a strength and a weakness can be very similar to those things right And I think one of our strengths is the depth that we have We may have limited experience we may have newness but I think we have depth And I think the ability to not have a rotation is a strength because you can go to fresh guys you can go to a bunch of different guys you can do a bunch of different things We re in the obviously early stages of that but I m not sure that we will have one and I think that really could be a good thing for us throughout the season The Celtics are especially unproven in the frontcourt where they ll be relying on Queta Boucher Garza and Tillman to replace Kristaps Porzingis Al Horford and Luke Kornet and on the wing behind Brown and Hauser Four young players are competing for roles there in Minott Walsh Scheierman and Gonzalez all of whom logged at least minutes Wednesday night After the Celtics went ahead - with to play Mazzulla opted to close with a lineup that featured Minott Scheierman and Gonzalez against Toronto s backups That group could not protect the lead amid a slew of late Boston turnovers but after Jamison Battle tied the match with seconds remaining Tillman sank a game-winning -footer to send the Garden crowd home happy Tillman who also hit a clutch three earlier in the fourth quarter was the only Boston reserve to finish with a positive plus minus in the win