Is Al Horford Playing Tonight? Injury Update Ahead of Celtics vs Heat Game 2

Updated (Thursday, 5/19, 3 p.m. ET): Al Horford is officially available for tonight's game. This is a pretty significant turnaround, as he was listed as doubtful earlier Thursday morning.

Updated (Thursday, 5/19, 1 p.m. ET): The Boston Celtics have upgraded Al Horford from doubtful to questionable. This doesn't guarantee anything, but he appears to have a better shot of suiting up tonight than he did earlier this morning.

Marcus Smart was sidelined for Game 1 of the Eastern Conference Finals against the Miami Heat. Without their veteran leader, Boston completely fell apart in the third quarter, as the Celtics were outscored 39-14 en route to a 118-107 loss.

Unfortunately, it looks like the 35-year-old is going to miss Game 2 as well.

Is Al Horford Playing Tonight?

Horford was a surprise addition to the injury report, popping up on the Health & Safety Protocols just hours before Game 1. As of this afternoon, the team officially listed him as doubtful to suit up tonight.

Al Horford Injury Update

Horford was always going to be a bit of a longshot to suit up. When this news broke on Tuesday, ESPN's Adrian Wojnarowski reported that Boston was prepared for Horford to miss Game 2 as well. It looks like that's what's happening, though there's a chance Horford defies the odds and suits up.

Celtics vs Heat Game 2

With Horford and Derrick White out, and Marcus Smart likely to be hobbled if he does suit up, Boston is a 3.5-point underdog on the road tonight, per FanDuel Sportsbook. But those numbers could shift depending on whether or not guys like Horford, Smart and Kyle Lowry suit up in Game 2.

Max Staley is not a FanDuel employee. In addition to providing DFS gameplay advice, Max Staley also participates in DFS contests on FanDuel using his personal account, username mstaley1212. While the strategies and player selections recommended in his articles are his personal views, he may deploy different strategies and player selections when entering contests with his personal account. The views expressed in their articles are the author's alone and do not necessarily reflect the views of FanDuel.