The Boston Celtics will play the penultimate game of the regular season on Friday night against the New Orleans Pelicans (7:30 p.m. ET), and if the C's can win, they'll officially wrap up the No. 2 seed in the Eastern Conference playoff race.

Boston was unable to do that on Thursday, losing against the New York Knicks 112-106. And if they are going to clinch the second seed against New Orleans, they'll have to do so shorthanded. On Thursday night, the team played without Jaylen Brown, and while Brown is questionable for Friday, Jayson Tatum has been ruled out.

Tatum played 40 minutes on Thursday, his most minutes since returning from a torn Achilles, but he's still not cleared to play back-to-back games at this point.

Brown is questionable, while Sam Hauser, Neemias Queta and Derrick White are all listed as probable. 

New Orleans comes in at 26-54, so the Celtics certainly should be able to get a win regardless of who's playing, but Mazzulla surely would like to wrap up the second seed on Friday, rather than waiting until the regular season finale against Orlando on Sunday afternoon at TD Garden.

The Pelicans are coming off a win against the Utah Jazz, but they had lost eight games in a row prior to that.

Jeremiah Fears scored 40 points in that win against the Jazz while Jordan Poole had 34 and Micah Ivey had 20. Zion Williamson didn't play, but he has played in 62 games this season, averaging 21.0 ppg.

Brown didn't play in the loss against the Knicks because of left Achilles tendinitis, so that factors into what happened, but the C's still had their chances. They led by two points entering the fourth quarter.

Tatum led the way in scoring with 24 points in those 40 minutes, but he was just 7-of-22 from the floor and 2-of-10 from three-point range. All that said, he still almost registered a triple-double, pulling down 13 rebounds and generating eight assists.

Payton Pritchard scored 23 points while Baylor Scheireman had 20 points on 7-of-8 shooting. White went 0-for-6 from three-point range and didn't have a block, failing to make some incredible NBA history. He still has two more opportunities to do so, assuming he plays in the final two games of the season.

If the Celtics are able to get the No. 2 seed, they'll play the No. 7 in the playoffs. That spot is currently occupied by the Magic, but it's subject to the results of the play-in tournament.

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