Brad Stevens is going to have to be resourceful over the next few weeks.
The Boston Celtics are dealing with a slew of injuries, some minor and some much more detrimental. The Celtics will square off against the Washington Wizards on Wednesday night at TD Garden before hitting the road for a game Friday against the Orlando Magic and Sunday against the New Orleans Pelicans.
But Stevens addressed the current injury status of the team ahead of Wednesday’s game, shedding some light on some rough timetables for returns, as well as indicating a few players who won’t travel with the team later in the week.
Al Horford (illness), out Wednesday but probable Friday — “He’s feeling a little bit better, he was knocked out really through yesterday. He did go to the gym yesterday evening to try and shoot around a little bit, but (was) pretty weak. Went through some stuff this morning, still didn’t feel great, probably just erring on the side of caution with that. But he hasn’t done anything for four days, so we’re trying to get him feeling great heading into the weekend. He should be back and ready to roll Friday hopefully … he had whatever bug was going around.”
Jayson Tatum (lower back), will play Wednesday — “I think it’s just stuff that you deal over the course of 60-something games. He went through everything this morning, went through extra work afterwards.”
Tatum indicated that he is ready to play and that it may have just been a matter of sleeping on it the wrong way.
Daniel Theis (left knee meniscal tear), out for season — “Daniel is going to have surgery tomorrow (Thursday) and will be out for the season as we said the other day.”
Jaylen Brown (concussion), out indefinitely — “Jaylen is great as far as he’s progressing in the right direction, still hasn’t started any progression from the concussion protocol, still has a little bit of a lingering headache but is clearly better and hopefully all goes well and he can start that this weekend, but he will not travel with us, he will not be at either game.”
Kyrie Irving (left knee soreness), out Wednesday — “Kyrie was a little bit better again each day, not playing tonight, unlikely for Friday, plan is to have him travel though so he could play in one of the games on the road. … He did (have imaging) everything looked great, which is good, just got some soreness and some pain in that knee. And again it’s not something you wouldn’t have guessed he’d have some of, but obviously creeping up twice in 10 days we want to be very careful with that.”
Marcus Smart (right thumb sprain), out indefinitely — “Marcus Smart did the thumb at the end of the game the other day (Sunday), in the fourth quarter, third quarter sometime. (He) sprained it, assessing how significant the ligament damage is through his (right thumb), he’s going to go talk to another doctor about what the chances are of being able to play without furthering an injury, and also if it necessitates surgery or not and what the recovery time would be. After all that information is gathered, we’ll make a decision, along with all of us on the rest of the year. And again, we’ll know more this week.”
