Second opinion, then decision for injured Smart
CELTICS NOTEBOOK
Marcus Smart will meet with a local doctor today to get a second opinion on his sprained right thumb. The process of whether or not he returns to the Celtics lineup this season won’t end there.
Smart is no stranger to playing with pain, and will do so if he’s told he can’t do further damage to the torn ligaments in the thumb area. But there is also the real possibility of surgery, and shutting down with only 14 games left until the playoffs.
“He’s assessing how significant the ligament damage is through our docs,” coach Brad Stevens said before last night’s game at the Garden against the Washington Wizards. “He’ll go talk to another doc about what his chances are of playing without further injury, and also if he needs surgery or not, and what the recovery time would be. After all that information is gathered, he’ll make a decision along with all of us about the rest of the year.”
Stevens estimated that Smart won’t make that call until early next week, though the main issue now appears to be whether he has suffered a completely torn ligament, as opposed to a partial tear. As a result, the Celtics are very much up in the air over whether their defensive catalyst will play again this season.
Good news on Irving
The Celtics actually received some encouraging news regarding Kyrie Irving, who missed the game due to a sore left knee, after also missing the second half of Sunday’s loss to the Indiana Pacers for the same reason.
Irving, who suffered a broken kneecap in 2015, had an MRI taken of the joint this week. The results were negative.
“Everything looked great, which is good,” Stevens said. “Just got some soreness and some pain in that knee and, again, not something that 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. Kyrie was a little bit better, again, each day. Not playing tonight, unlikely for Friday (at the Orlando Magic), plan is to have him travel, though. So could play in one of the games on the road.” . . .
Jaylen Brown remains in the league’s concussion protocol, and will not travel with the team when it leaves today for Orlando.
“Jaylen is great, as far as he’s progressing in the right direction,” Stevens said. “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.”
Horford a no-go
Another lingering issue appears to be center Al Horford’s battle with an illness that forced him to miss a second straight game. Unlike Brown, though, Horford is expected to travel with the team.
“Al is feeling a little bit better. He was knocked out though really through (Tuesday),” Stevens said. “He did go to the gym yesterday evening to try to shoot around a little bit, felt pretty weak. Went through some stuff this morning, still didn’t feel great. Probably just erring on the side of caution with that but, at the same time, he hasn’t done anything for four days. Try to get him feeling great heading into the weekend. He should be back and ready to roll by Friday, hopefully.” ...
Daniel Theis, who tore the meniscus in his left knee Sunday, will have surgery today.