Celtics vs. 76ers Tuesday NBA injury report, odds: Boston clinches top-two seed in East with win; Robert Williams out, Jaylen Brown questionable

The Boston Celtics can lock in a top-two seed in the Eastern Conference with a victory Tuesday night in Philadelphia, which is three games behind-first place Boston. The Celtics are 2.5-point underdogs, however, as they will be without starting center Robert Williams and All-Star Jaylen Brown is listed as questionable.

Tuesday is Boston's last road matchup of the regular season, so it might be tempting to punt on it, although the team doesn't want to completely give up on catching Milwaukee for the East's top seed. Milwaukee is two games up and the -1200 favorite to finish atop the conference DraftKings, but Boston holds the head-to-head tiebreaker. The Bucks will be favored in the rest of their regular-season games as long as everyone of note plays. Boston is +700 for the top seed.

Williams has been in and out of the lineup all season with knee issues, so he sits in the front end of a back-to-back. That could be a boost to Joel Embiid's MVP chances, as Williams is by far Boston's top post defender. Embiid is the -230 favorite to win his first MVP. Brown is questionable with lower back pain. He's averaging 26.7 points and 6.8 rebounds.  Brown was also listed as questionable for Friday's win over the Jazz and was just 5-for-19 from the field for 12 points. He was clearly laboring at times.

A potential Brown absence could mean more shots for fellow All-Star Jayson Tatum. In his last two games, Tatum has scored 79 points on only 35 field-goal attempts. The only other player in NBA history to score as many points on fewer field goal attempts in a two-game span is Embiid with 80 points on 34 attempts in January 2021. Tatum is the first player in NBA history to score at least 39 points in consecutive games without committing a turnover. He's set at over/under 30.5 points tonight.

Embiid is not listed on the injury report for Tuesday, which is somewhat rare. With Nikola Jokic missing a few games lately, the MVP is clearly there for the taking and Embiid wants it. He's set at O/U 31.5 points tonight. While the Sixers aren't catching Boston for the No. 2 seed barring a win tonight and a minor miracle the rest of the way, the Sixers need to be focused on staying ahead of No. 4 Cleveland (2.5 games back).

Boston tries for the four-game series sweep of Philadelphia. Tatum and Brown are averaging 21.7 points per game in the season series. Embiid is averaging 31.7 PPG and 11.3 rebounds per game in the three. 

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