Celtics Injuries: Marcus Smart Out Due To Short-Term Hand Laceration

Marcus Smart officially is missing his second game of the season Monday night for the Boston Celtics.

The Celtics hit the road to take on the Minnesota Timberwolves and Smart officially was ruled out by head coach Ime Udoka due to a hand laceration he suffered in a Christmas Day loss to the Milwaukee Bucks.

“He’s out, he’s officially out now,” Udoka told reporters prior to Monday’s game. “He got a bad cut on his hand last game against Milwaukee and played through it but it’s in a nasty spot, it’s a nasty cut. Not a lot of gripping he’s able to do and shooting just didn’t feel right, even catching the balls, so he’s out tonight.”

Although Smart’s hand injury would be enough to keep him out of the Celtics’ tilt with the Timberwolves, Udoka made it sound like it wouldn’t keep the Boston point guard out of the lineup for very long.

“He tried to give it a go tonight and see how he felt but it’s just in a nasty spot honestly and so I wouldn’t anticipate it being long term,” Udoka said. “Just heal up some and probably find some padding or bandaging to take away some of the pain.”

With Smart out and Dennis Schröder dealing with COVID-19, second-year guard Payton Pritchard was placed in the starting lineup. On the bright side for the Celtics they did get two players back from the NBA’s health and safety protocols prior to Monday’s showdown.