BOSTON — Jrue Holiday stood in the Celtics’ locker room sporting his new black splint on his right pinkie finger. A trainer took a look as Holiday described his pain and swelling, then briefly spoke with reporters after Boston ruled him out for a second straight game with what the team called right mallet finger on his pinkie. Joe Mazzulla called him day-to-day barring his ability to play through pain.
Holiday suffered the injury on a rebound that crushed his finger last week against the Pistons. He never suffered mallet finger before, only regular jams on his fingers, but noted that the team told him he broke his finger. The injury won’t require surgery, and he plans to play through the injury eventually, as a source confirmed earlier in the day. It’s unclear when that’ll happen. Holiday hasn’t tried to dribble, shoot or catch the ball yet due to pain.
“I didn’t really hear of the term mallet finger until people were telling me that I had mallet finger,” Holiday said. “So we’ll see. Shooting, dribbling, catching, they’re probably all pretty weird or honestly, inconvenient.”
Sunday marked Holiday’s 14th absence this season and seventh over the Celtics’ last 10 games due to an array of shoulder and lower body ailments. When asked how close he stood to 100% health at Denver in January, he joked that he’s old, so it takes him longer. He also mentioned that his bumps-and-bruises aren’t ones that would simply heal from taking a handful of games off. Speaking to Forbes, he mentioned physical and mental fatigue for the team following a long playoff run and significant minutes for him in the Summer Olympics.
He turned 34 this year, his 16th season, and saw both his scoring and shooting efficiency fall from 12.5 PPG to 10.8, and 48% FG to 43.8% (42.9% 3PT to 34.2%). The Celtics have managed him carefully, even designating some of his absences as simple rest nights on the injury report. Holiday only missed 13 regular season games in 2023-24, and played the entire postseason slate.
Holiday doesn’t know how the injury will impact him when he returns, and called the ordeal frustrating. He needs to straighten his finger in the splint for as long as possible, and it surrounds his entire finger. The Celtics have two off days following Sunday’s Nuggets game, more time to reduce the swelling and pain while allowing for a potential practice where he can test out his ability to play through it. Other players, including Lu Dort this year, have managed the injury rather than going through the surgery route, which is sometimes necessary to repair the damaged finger ligament. That would’ve cost him several weeks.
Dort has shot 40.6% from the field, 38.3% from three and didn’t miss any time following his injury in November, though the first four games after it saw him shoot 3-for-26 from the field and 2-for-17 from three.
“Would love to be as healthy as possible, but things happen,” Holiday said. “I don’t know (when I’ll return), it’s the first time, I’ve jammed a lot of fingers, but never really had this before, I don’t think. I’m trying to figure it out. I’m gonna be in the splint for a minute, but figuring that out too on my shooting hand.”
