The NBA-leading Boston Celtics will be without All-Star Jaylen Brown when they host the Charlotte Hornets on Friday night.

Brown collided with teammate Jayson Tatum while both players were chasing down a rebound in the second quarter of Boston’s 106-99 victory over Philadelphia on Wednesday. Tatum’s right elbow hit Brown on the left side of his face during the collision. Brown left the game and did not return.

Multiple reports said Brown could be out through the All-Star break. The Celtics have four games remaining before the Feb. 17-19 break.

Brown was recently named an Eastern Conference reserve for this year’s NBA All-Star Game. He’s averaging 26.5 points, 7.0 rebounds and 3.2 assists per game this season.

“I hope he’s all right,” Tatum said after the game. “We both went for the rebound, collided … just a freak accident. I feel terrible, so I hope he’s going to be all right.”

Tatum is listed as questionable for Friday with a non-COVID illness, while Marcus Smart (ankle) will miss his ninth straight game. The good news for the Celtics is that Al Horford (knee swelling) and Robert Williams III (ankle sprain) were both upgraded to probable for Friday after missing Wednesday’s win.

The Celtics added Mike Muscala before Thursday’s trade deadline in a deal with the Thunder, shipping Justin Jackson and draft picks to Oklahoma City.

Boston’s depth was on display during Wednesday’s win against Philadelphia. Despite missing three Smart, Horford and Williams, the Celtics received 41 points from their bench players and had six players score in double figures.

Blake Griffin made five 3-pointers, including his first three 3-point attempts. The Celtics, who have won four of their last five, made 19 of their 35 3-point attempts overall.

“I think we go into situations like this with the utmost trust and comfortability because of our depth and the character of our guys,” Celtics coach Joe Mazzulla said. “Payton (Pritchard), Blake, the whole crew. You can always count on them. I thought Blake did a great job giving us presence and just giving us a lift at the beginning of the game.”

Charlotte enters Friday’s matchup on a five-game losing streak and has lost its last six road games.

It will be the fourth time the Hornets and Celtics have played this season. Tatum scored 51 points in the last meeting, a 130-118 Boston victory on Jan. 16. Jalen McDaniels, who was traded to the Philadelphia 76ers on Thursday in a three-team deal, led Charlotte with 26 points in the loss.

In the McDaniels trade, the Hornets received Svi Mykhailiuk and two second-round picks and the Portland Trail Blazers landed Matisse Thybulle.

The Celtics also beat the Hornets 140-105 in Boston on Nov. 28 and 122-106 on the road Jan. 14.

Charlotte, which is fighting with Detroit to stay out of the bottom spot in the Eastern Conference standings, is coming off Wednesday’s 118-104 loss to Washington. The game was tied at halftime, but the Wizards took control by outscoring the Hornets 27-15 in the third quarter.

Washington’s Kristaps Porzingis scored 36 points and matched his career high by making eight 3-pointers.

“We just didn’t come out in the third quarter with the same offensive purpose and energy … and Porzingis obviously got going,” Charlotte coach Steve Clifford said. “We made two mistakes at the end of the first half (that) led to two wide-open 3s for him and kind of got him going, which is what happens with a lot of primary scorers.”

Charlotte ranks last in the NBA in 3-point field goal percentage (32.1 percent).

–Field Level Media

The San Antonio Spurs essentially dropped off their starting center north of the border after their last game and will play their first game since trading Jakob Poeltl to Toronto when they visit the Detroit Pistons on Friday.

Poeltl was headed to free agency and numerous teams coveted the reliable big man. San Antonio agreed to deal Poeltl (12.1 points, 9.1 rebounds per game) to his former team for center Khem Birch, a protected 2024 first-round draft pick and two future second-round picks.

The Spurs also sent Devonte’ Graham and draft picks to the New Orleans Pelicans for Josh Richardson. The Pistons sent out Saddiq Bey and Kevin Knox, while getting James Wiseman back in return from the Golden State Warriors at a busy deadline.

Even before the Spurs’ deal became public, Toronto coach Nick Nurse heaped praise on Poeltl.

“We loved him when he was here,” Nurse said. “Just really tough, smart, hard-working. He does a lot of the game. He’s a screener, a rebounder, a rim protector, pretty smart on D, not necessarily a shot-blocker but a rim-protector guy. And his passing has really improved. That’s pretty good on the list of big guy things to do.”

Birch, Zach Collins and Charles Bassey are some of the potential candidates to replace Poeltl in the lineup.

Following Nurse’s comments, the Raptors handed San Antonio its 10th consecutive loss, 112-98. San Antonio committed 16 turnovers, leading to 22 points for Toronto.

“When you turn it over against Toronto, it’s like a bucket at the other end with their speed and their athleticism,” Spurs coach Gregg Popovich said. “They got too many points off our turnovers, but that’s how they play. That’s one of their strengths.”

Opponents have been exploiting the Spurs’ many weaknesses while Popovich and his staff evaluate younger players. They’ve lost 18 of their last 20 games.

“Obviously this year has been a development year, and we are learning as we go, but the future is bright,” Spurs veteran forward Doug McDermott said. “And I think we can be a team that competes and wins a lot of games next year with hopefully what we have coming in.”

One of the only two victories they’ve collected since New Year’s Eve has come at the Pistons’ expense. San Antonio recorded a 121-109 home win on Jan. 6 as Tre Jones, who missed Wednesday’s game with a foot injury, scored 25 points. Poeltl racked up 11 points, 16 rebounds, seven assists and three blocks.

Detroit has won only three games since that night and has the same number of wins this season — 14 — as San Antonio.

The Pistons have dropped three straight, including a 113-85 road loss to Cleveland on Wednesday. The Cavaliers outscored the Pistons 37-17 in the fourth quarter, even though their dynamic backcourt of Darius Garland and Donovan Mitchell didn’t play.

The Pistons were held to a season-low in points while giving up 70 points in the paint. The addition of the 7-foot Wiseman, who has struggled with injuries, is expected to address that issue moving forward. The Pistons shot 37 percent from the field and got out-rebounded 50-32.

“These type of games are butt-kicking contests because they play physical offense,” Pistons coach Dwane Casey said. “It was a great game for us to feel, to taste, to go up against a hard-nosed, physical playoff team.”

San Antonio will be playing the third game of a nine-game road trip. Detroit plays its next three games on the road.

–Field Level Media

The Atlanta Hawks sent Frank Kaminsky and Justin Holiday to the Houston Rockets on Thursday in a cost-cutting move, ESPN reported.

The Hawks get Garrison Mathews and Bruno Fernando from the Rockets. The Hawks also send two second-round picks to the Rockets.

The Hawks traded for Saddiq Bey earlier in the day.

Both Kaminsky and Holiday are on expiring contracts.

Holiday, 33, is averaging 4.5 points per game in 28 games off the bench for the Hawks this season.

Kaminsky, 29, is averaging 2.7 points in 26 games off the bench.

Fernando, 24, is averaging 4.1 points and 3.9 rebounds in 31 games (four starts). He played his first two NBA seasons with Atlanta in 2019-21.

Mathews, 26, is averaging 4.8 points in 45 games off the bench for the Rockets.

–Field Level Media

LeBron James won’t add to his NBA points record on Thursday night.

The Los Angeles Lakers ruled out the recently crowned scoring king for the game against the visiting Milwaukee Bucks with left ankle soreness.

The team is scheduled to honor James in a pregame ceremony at Crypto.com Arena.

James matched his age with 38 points in Tuesday’s loss to the Oklahoma City Thunder to move past Kareem Abdul-Jabbar (38,387 points) for the No. 1 spot on the career scoring list. James has 38,390 points.

The 19-time All-Star is averaging 30.2 points, 8.5 rebounds and 7.0 assists in 44 games this season.

–Field Level Media

The New Orleans Pelicans acquired Josh Richardson from the San Antonio Spurs in exchange for Devonte’ Graham and four second-round picks, ESPN and The Athletic reported Thursday.

Richardson, 29, is averaging 11.5 points and 3.3 assists in 42 games (six starts) for the Spurs this season.

The Pelicans save $12.1 million against the cap for the 2023-24 season by unloading Graham.

Graham, 27, is averaging 5.3 points in 53 games off the bench this season with the Pelicans.

The Spurs picked up seven draft picks in two trade-deadline deals Thursday. They got a protected first-round pick and two second-round picks from Toronto earlier Thursday in the trade that sent Jakob Poeltl to Toronto.

Also Thursday, the Spurs waived Dewayne Dedmon after the veteran center was acquired from the Miami Heat on Tuesday for cash considerations, The Athletic reported.

–Field Level Media

The Minnesota Timberwolves made it official Thursday, announcing they acquired Mike Conley Jr. and Nickeil Alexander-Walker from Utah in the three-team trade that sent D’Angelo Russell to the Los Angeles Lakers.

The Wolves also acquired Utah’s 2025 and 2026 second-round picks as well as a 2024 second-round pick from the Lakers in the deal.

In a corresponding move, the Timberwolves waived guard Bryn Forbes.

Russell, 26, was in his fourth season in Minnesota. The 2018-19 All-Star is averaging 17.9 points and 6.2 assists per game in 54 starts this season. His points production has decreased every season in Minnesota since averaging 21.7 for the Timberwolves in 12 games in 2019-20. He is a career 17.7-point scorer for four teams.

The Lakers also received Malik Beasley and Jarred Vanderbilt from Utah.

The Jazz got Russell Westbrook, a top-four-protected 2027 first-round pick plus Juan Toscano-Anderson and Damian Jones from Los Angeles.

Conley, 35, is in his 16th NBA season and fourth in Utah. He’s averaging 10.7 points and 7.7 assists per game in 43 games (42 starts) this season. He spent his first 12 seasons in Memphis and averages 14.7 points per game for his career.

Alexander-Walker, 24, gave the Jazz 6.3 points and 2.1 assists per contest in 36 games (three starts) this season. For his career, he has averages of 8.7 points, 2.4 rebounds and 2.2 assists in 194 games (38 starts).

Forbes, 29, was averaging 3.6 points per game in 25 appearances off the bench this season, his first in Minnesota. He was playing 10.7 minutes per game.

–Field Level Media

The Los Angeles Clippers acquired big man Mason Plumlee from Charlotte in exchange for shooting guard Reggie Jackson, multiple outlets reported Thursday.

The Hornets also get a 2028 second-round pick, per the reports.

Plumlee, 32, is averaging 12.2 points and 9.7 rebounds in 56 starts for the Hornets this season, his second in Charlotte. The Clippers will be his sixth team since being selected No. 22 overall in the 2013 draft by Brooklyn.

The Clippers were in the market for a backup to center Ivica Zubac.

Jackson, 32, is averaging 10.9 points in 52 games (38 starts) for the Clippers this season. The Clippers beefed up their backcourt by trading for guards Eric Gordon and Bones Hyland on Thursday, the NBA’s trade deadline.

Jackson averages 12.9 points per game for his career since being selected No. 24 overall in the 2011 draft by Oklahoma City.

Both players are in the final years of their contracts.

–Field Level Media