Jayson Tatum should be a first-team All-NBA shoo-in when the league hands out those honors next month.

Whether his Celtics co-star also receives All-NBA recognition could hinge on how head coach Joe Mazzulla manages his roster as the regular season winds down.

The Celtics ruled Jaylen Brown out for Monday night’s road game against the Memphis Grizzlies as he dealt with a lingering knee injury.

Brown, who’s also battled shoulder, ankle and hip issues, has played in 59 games this season. To qualify for end-of-season awards, including the All-NBA and All-Defensive teams, players must appear in at least 65 regular-season games. For Brown, that means he’d need to appear in at least six of Boston’s seven remaining games to qualify.

Those games are: home versus Miami, Phoenix and Washington, a road back-to-back against New York and Orlando, and two home games against Charlotte. The Celtics are unlikely to close the 4 1/2-game gap between them and first-place Cleveland in the Eastern Conference standings, giving Mazzulla an incentive to rest his regulars — especially ones, like Brown, who have not been fully healthy — to get them prepared for the postseason.

“I think it’s the balance, right?” Mazzulla told reporters in his pregame news conference. I think it’s what gives you the best chance where you’re at right now. Every game is different. What gives us the best chance to win as a team? What gives you the best chance as an individual to perform and do the things that we need you to do and that you’re great at to help us win. And as long as we can maintain that balance, I think that stuff is super important, because at the end of the day, he’s a competitive guy, and every day, he does what it takes to put himself into position to help us win, whether that’s on the court or in practice or whatnot.

“So you have to reward that, and he knows that balance. So you just work together on it.”

Brown made second-team All-Pro in 2022-23 but missed the cut last season, losing out on the final third-team spot to Suns guard Devin Booker (before going on to earn MVP honors in the Eastern Conference finals and NBA Finals). His shooting and scoring numbers are down this season (22.8 points per game on 46.1%), but he’s on pace for a career high in assists (4.6 per game) and is leading the Celtics in steals per game (1.2).

Mazzulla made a surprise choice to replace Brown in the starting lineup: seldom-used big man Xavier Tillman. Tillman, an ex-Grizzly, hadn’t seen game action since March 6 and had logged just 11 total minutes since the All-Star break.

The Celtics also ruled out backup center Luke Kornet (illness) for Monday’s game after adding him to the injury report early in the day. Kornet has been an impact reserve for Boston this season, and he was dominant in Saturday’s win over San Antonio, recording 14 points and a career-high 16 rebounds.

It was the 17th straight game that Boston played without at least one of its core rotation players available.