IT puts blame on Celts
Hints he was misled regarding hip injury
As Isaiah Thomas prepares to make his Cavaliers debut, quite possibly when Cleveland plays its first game of the season at the Garden on Jan. 3, he continues to question his decision to play in the playoffs last spring for the Celtics — especially after aggravating the torn labrum in his left hip in Game 6 of the conference semifinals against the Washington Wizards.
“I do wish I had more information,” he told ESPN’s Rachel Nichols in an interview that aired yesterday, adding that if he knew more about the injury’s severity, he would not have played.
Brad Stevens said yesterday that throughout meetings with the team medical staff in the playoffs, Thomas claimed he wanted to keep playing.
“The one thing I would say is with all he was going through at that time, for whatever reason, that basketball is where he wanted to be, and he made that pretty clear,” the C’s coach said. “I’m told what I’m told by our doctors and trainers. You ask if a guy is available, and if he’s really struggling, then obviously we have to ask him.
“The thing about it is you want guys to feel great at that moment, to be fully healthy to play. We had talks on multiple occasions about, ‘If you can’t go, then don’t go.’ At the same time, and he could answer this question better than I would, but it seems like it was aggravated in Game 6 against Washington. Probably the start of even more, even tougher (results), but we had that conversation after Game 6 in Washington. You never want to see a guy sit for any period of time right now, and nothing is going to make me happier than to see him play, even if you don’t want to play against him.
“From everything I know or was told, it was aggravated in Game 6, and I don’t know the level of injury prior to that compared to what it is now.”
Beals, Tatum huddle
Bradley Beal and his brothers paid Jayson Tatum a visit on Christmas Eve, and the group of St. Louis natives had fun talking about home. And after watching the Celtics rookie spring for 20 points on 7-for-9 shooting yesterday, Beal had to admit that little has changed as Tatum climbs the NBA ladder.
He still sees an extremely cool performer, including in a nationally televised Christmas showcase game.
“Always. That’s something I’m trying to get him out of — even to this day. Sometimes he’s a little too cool,” the Wizards guard said. “Sometimes he needs to be a straight-up killer and try to take over some games. But it’ll definitely come for him. He has Kyrie (Irving), he has Gordon (Hayward) to learn from. He has a lot of great guys over there to really follow behind and really mold his game into the way he needs to. But he definitely has always been like that though.”
“It’s amazing to see his growth, man. I’ve been watching him since he was a pup. Now he’s a man finding his way into the league. He can score the ball in a variety of ways. The crazy thing is I wasn’t impressed because I always see it. I almost call out his moves. But it’s amazing to see him do it on this level. He’s going to be a special talent, a star in this league for many years for sure.”
Beal also could tell, early on, that Tatum was headed to the NBA.
“Middle of high school, man. Maybe even before high school because he was 6-foot-7 (or) 6-foot-9 in high school,” he said. “And he was No. 1 in his class (academically) so like that was kind of a no-brainer. I saw the potential early. We all saw it. I’m just happy that he was able to stay levelheaded and finally let his dream come true.”
Sibling revelry
Marcus Morris, who has missed 20 games this season because of a sore left knee, returned to the lineup for the third time yesterday — just in time to match up, for a brief period, against his twin brother Markieff.
Though Marcus had been relatively injury free before this season, Markieff believes his brother is dealing with the disappointment relatively well.
“Wouldn’t call it frustrating. When you’re not healthy, you’re not healthy, and there isn’t too much you can do about it,” Markieff Morris said. “You try to work on your body and get better. He’s trying to come along now, and hopefully he’ll be back in full health soon.”
The brothers went out to dinner last night after the game, and there’s a good chance basketball wasn’t part of the conversation. It wasn’t a topic before the game.
“Probably talked about Monopoly later or something like that,” Markieff said of their pregame conversation. “We normally don’t talk about the game when it’s him and me.”