Swollen knee forces Walker to sideline
MINNEAPOLIS — Kemba Walker’s new goal, and the Celtics guard admittedly doesn’t know if it’s possible after missing last night’s game against the Timberwolves, is to play Sunday against the Lakers.
But after returning from the All-Star game with a swollen left knee that had to be drained and then injected with an anti-inflammatory, Walker also admits that he’s about to find out what his load management plan will look like approaching the playoffs.
Brad Stevens said earlier in the day that the training staff will investigate the possibility of taking Walker off the floor for a week or two to give the knee time to heal.
He’s here, after all, for a long playoff run.
“It’s tough. It’s tough. I don’t know. I don’t know,” Walker said of what the plan will be. “Gotta see. Just gotta listen to my body, do what’s best for me. We’ve got a great team around me so I have a lot of trust and faith in these guys to go out there and do what they do. So yeah. They have faith in me and they want me to get better as well. Things will be all right, I think.”
“We’re working on it.
Right now I think it’s just day by day depending on how I’m feeling. So, yeah, I’m not sure,” he said. “We don’t have anything set yet, but yeah I’m looking towards just getting right, getting myself together and getting healthy. I just want to get back, I want to play. So that’s my main focus right now.”
The question of course, is at what cost will it be if Walker returns quickly. He paid dearly for a swing between last Thursday’s double overtime win over the Clippers, when Walker played 46 minutes, and the All-Star Game, when he played an unexpected 29 minutes.
Walker said he has had the knee drained over the years, though this was his first time as a Celtic. He now admits that getting healthy for the playoffs — a concept he never had to truly consider in Charlotte — is of prime consideration.
“They’re putting it in my mind. I haven’t really had to do that much over the years and think like that over the years. So it is (a possibility),” he said. “And at the end of the day, that’s what’s most important: being able to compete at the highest level in the playoffs … and being able to feel good competing. I don’t want to just be out there and just be an extra body on the floor. I want to be out there and play my game.”
Mutual respect
Timberwolves coach Ryan Saunders counts Stevens as one of the first to reach out when he took over the Timberwolves last season.
“Coach Stevens, I consider him a friend in this league. He’s been a guy who’s reached out as a younger coach, someone who has had unbelievable success wherever he’s been,” said the Timberwolves coach, son of the late Flip Saunders. “He’s been really a great example for young coaches, not just in the NBA, but young coaches everywhere. How to carry yourself, but also how creativity is something that can help separate you in this league. I’ve tried to steal a lot from him. I’ve watched a lot of things that he does and got a chance to grab dinner with him at the combine. The fact that he’s the last coach I haven’t coached against, I’m glad, because you don’t want to coach against a guy like that every night.”
Said Stevens: “First time I met him was just walking in the hallway after one of these games. I think he was just walking in the hallway, and obviously I knew his dad a little bit and knew of him, but I think when he was still going through the process in the interview process is when we sat down for dinner in the combine.”