Irving missing in action with wounded knee
CELTICS NOTEBOOK
CHICAGO — Kyrie Irving went 0-for-the-Windy-City, sitting out the Celtics’ second and last trip here with a sore left knee.
Irving also missed the Dec.11 visit, which turned into perhaps the Celts’ worst outing of the season, a 23-point loss.
Irving’s left knee has been an issue since he fractured the kneecap during the 2015 NBA Finals and had surgery. There have been reports that the All-Star will need another procedure to clean up the area, but thus far he’s dealt well maintaining his ability to play, though the soreness could have been a factor in his 6-for-17 shooting performance in Saturday’s loss to the Rockets.
“It felt a little bit (sore) before the game, so I’m dealing with that,” Irving said before tipoff last night. “Just trying to get it to calm down. I just want to make sure I’m as healthy as possible. At this point in the season, it’s just about the big picture. So I’m just trying to stay smart and kind of get out of my own way, and when it feels good, I’ll be back out there.”
As for whether the injury may keep him out of Thursday night’s game in Minnesota, coach Brad Stevens said, “I don’t know that, but I wouldn’t say that would be out of the question.”
To which Irving said, “He’s just being precautious.”
Stevens went through the injury’s recent timeline.
“He aggravated it the other night (in Houston),” Stevens said. “He was playing and felt it throughout the night, and then in the third quarter really was getting it worked on, was just experiencing some discomfort, some soreness. (He) woke up yesterday (and) felt a little bit better, woke up today (and) did not feel any better. So obviously with that left knee, we’re going to make sure that we do right by Kyrie first and foremost, and make sure he feels great.”
Irving is clearly trying to keep the knee from growing into a larger issue.
“It’s been about two years coming off knee surgery, so when you have to do things like that and just stay on top of it and make sure you’re doing the right thing,” he said. “Sometimes it may be a little bit extra just from the demand you put on your body and then also the realization of how much basketball you’ve actually been playing for the last few years and the level at which you demand your body to play at. It’s part of the game, and I think that’s the luxury of being in the regular season and having times where you can kind of put yourself first and just take care of yourself and then go from there.”
Bulls fans get kneed
There were some humorous reactions to the news that Irving would not play. The first came on social media from Bulls fans angry because it gave their team a better chance to win, and they’ve come to root for poorer results that will improve the club’s chances in the draft lottery.
The next Irving-related fun reply was about his two failures to properly miss a free throw as the Celts tried to come back in the waning seconds against the Rockets. His first attempt banked in, his next missed the rim entirely for a violation.
“That’s really why we’re benching him tonight,” deadpanned Stevens. “You know, the guy can’t miss a free throw. We’ve tried it all, and hopefully this message gets through that he’s not playing tonight.”
Interestingly enough, and as you’d probably expect, the Celtics do spend time working on missing free throws.
“Well, we’re not going to tell exactly what we do, because obviously there’s a lot of different things that go into it,” Stevens said. “We weren’t great at it on the first shot; luckily it went in. And then the second one we were a little bit better at doing what we wanted to do.
“It’s not something you work on every day, because it is a very, very unique thing, but you go through situations in the preseason and you present that situation just like you present a jump ball with three seconds left, just like you present a three-quarter court inbounds or a full-court inbounds. You kind of go through all that, and you do have to use opportunities like the other night to kind of review it quickly.”
Words of praise
As he did during last year’s playoff series against the Bulls, Stevens had strong praise for Chicago coach Fred Hoiberg.
“I’ve tried to steal a lot from what they’ve been doing offensively,” he said.
Told of Stevens’ comments, Hoiberg said, “I steal a lot of stuff from him, as well. We all steal things. In fact, there’s a couple of things I saw in the last game that they ran for Kyrie that we’re going to start running for Zach (LaVine).
“He’s as good as there is X’s and O’s in this league, and I know a lot of people take things from him. Brad’s as good as there is in this business.”