UPDATE (1:05 p.m. ET): Point guard Marcus Smart will not join the Boston Celtics on their upcoming two-game road trip as he recovers from a lower leg injury, the team announced Saturday.
Evan Turner will travel with club and will be available for Boston’s matchups with the Brooklyn Nets and Atlanta Hawks.
ORIGINAL STORY: Marcus Smart left Friday’s game against the Brooklyn Nets with a bruised knee, but apparently he wasn’t the only Boston Celtics player dealing with an ailment to that body part.
Smart and swingman Evan Turner both received MRIs at New England Baptist Hospital after Friday’s win to evaluate potential damage in their knees, a source told WEEI.com’s Mike Petraglia.
While the severity of both players’ injuries is unknown, doctors fear Turner sustained damage to his right miniscus and right poplitel tendon and Smart suffered a tibiofibular subluxation in his left knee, according to the source.
Celtics coach Brad Stevens said Friday team doctors told him Smart got hit on the knee during a play early in the fourth quarter.
Smart already missed three games earlier this season with a sprained left big toe.
Turner showed no obvious signs of injury Friday and played 26 minutes in Boston’s blowout win. He did deal with a mild right knee strain in the preseason that kept him out of the team’s two games in Europe, however. Turner has played in all 12 of the Celtics’ games this season and didn’t miss a single game for the C’s last season.
With the possibility of a thinner backcourt for Sunday’s contest in Brooklyn, Boston recalled guards Terry Rozier and James Young from the Maine Red Claws on Saturday.
If Smart and/or Turner are unable to go, it likely will mean more playing time for Rozier and fellow rookie R.J. Hunter behind Isaiah Thomas and Avery Bradley.
H/t to mrtripledouble10
Thumbnail photo via Mark L. Baer/USA TODAY Sports Images
