Jrue Holiday has been diagnosed with a mallet finger injury.
According to the National Health Service in England, a mallet finger is “an injury to the end of the finger, causing the tip to bend. It’s a common sports injury and is treated using a splint.”
The website also says it is a 6-to-8 week recovery timeline.
Jrue Holiday is out tonight with “mallet finger” per Celtics
I would expect him to miss a few weeks with this, but he could try to play through it in a splint
— Cameron Tabatabaie (@CTabatabaie) February 28, 2025
Re: Jrue Holiday: Mallet finger is an injury to the tendon that helps straighten the DIP joint (finger tip). Players have played with the injury while others have needed surgery. It often depends on the severity of tendon damage & the involved digit.
— Jeff Stotts (@InStreetClothes) February 28, 2025
This is, of course, a blow to the Celtics. Lu Dort recently played through the injury and according to the Thunder, it was painful to play through. “He went through a stretch there where he wasn’t shooting the same volume,” Oklahoma City’s coach and Massachusetts native Mark Daigneault said.
The NHS article also says “you may need to take time off work, depending on your job” and ends the article by saying “do not do sports or exercise involving your hands.”
Holiday can play through the injury but it seems like a bad idea.
He is already having a subpar season in terms of his shooting numbers and to deal with an injury like this on his shooting hand certainly won’t make it better.
His corner threes are down to 27% this season after being at 60% last year and his overall three point percentage is down to 34% after being 43% last season.
Holiday did play on Wednesday night but did not play well, missing a lot of open shots and struggling to get in a groove. This would explain why.
The Celtics could look to fill the void by signing a free agent. Dennis Smith Jr. is one player who is a free agent right now that the Celtics could look to sign as depth. JD Davison is already on the two-way but I don’t expect the Celtics to put him on the court after not trusting him for the better part of three years now. Reggie Jackson and Victor Oladipo are also available.
