Kemba Walker adjusts to missing time on Celtics’ West Coast swing
Kemba Walker, at 30, has been forced to adapt to some changes in his career this season. After averaging 75.6 games over his eight seasons in Charlotte, and playing 322 of 328 possible games over the last four, he’s been forced to rest and rehabilitate a sore left knee.
The Celtics guard missed his third straight game against Portland on Tuesday night — he’s missed 10 of 56 games overall thus far — and the process is admittedly making him anxious. Sitting out Sunday’s close-quarters loss against the Lakers — one of the most playoff-like national telecasts of the NBA season — really had to hurt.
“Very tough. Very tough,” Walker said prior to a shootaround at the Moda Center. “That was a great game, first of all. It looked like so much fun, would have been great to be part of it. But unfortunately I couldn’t. It was definitely killing me — I can’t lie.”
But the swelling in his knee after a 29-minute run in the All-Star game also didn’t lie. Walker hasn’t played since, and with the playoffs 26 games away, he understands that unlike during the Charlotte portion of his career, there’s more games to play now.
Though he has talked with the Celtics training staff about missing a stretch of games to ensure full health for the playoffs — maybe he’s in that stretch now — Walker still sounds like he’s waiting for a more immediate return to action.
“Just playing day by day really. It’s more about the long haul, just being smart about things, that’s it,” he said. “It’s a part of the game, man, it happens. We all go through injuries and things of that nature. I’ve been blessed my whole career to not have to go through this as much. It happens, not much I can do.
“It’s a different situation and I have to be smart, just have to be,” said Walker. “For sure if it was up to me I would definitely go out there and play, but at this point don’t want to take a step backwards if I was to go out there. Just being cautious.”
And though Brad Stevens said there’s an outside chance Walker could return for Wednesday’s game in Salt Lake City against the Jazz — arguably an even-tougher order for the Celtics than the Lakers game — the odds point the other way.
“I guess there’s a possibility but I would say it would be unlikely,” said the Celtics coach. “What he’s doing is exactly what we said, strengthening and working out hard and trying to make it so it doesn’t become a back and forth thing. That’s the goal.”