Crowder’s hurt, too
On bench with Horford after spraining left ankle
CELTICS NOTEBOOK
The Celtics went from one man down last night in Al Horford to two when Jae Crowder sprained his left ankle in the second quarter of a 107-100 win against the Chicago Bulls at the Garden.
Crowder dropped to the floor after landing on the foot of a Bull, got up after a play was finished down the other end, then hopped off the court and into the locker room.
Coach Brad Stevens said the forward will miss at least a week, ruling him out of tonight’s game in Cleveland against the Cavaliers as well as Sunday’s home game against the Denver Nuggets.
“At least a week, and then we’ll see after, but I don’t think we’re into it enough to make an assessment on that timeline,” Stevens said. “It doesn’t sound like he’ll be back any time soon.”
The sight of Crowder hopping off the floor as the C’s medical staff ran after him certainly wasn’t encouraging. An X-ray taken at halftime confirmed everyone’s fears.
“I knew when he went to the locker room that I thought he wasn’t coming back,” guard Isaiah Thomas said. “He’s a tough guy and injuries really don’t hold him back. It’s tough. The next man has to step up and hold the fort until he comes back.”
Concussion for center
And then there’s the tale of Horford, who will also miss at least tonight’s game against the Cavaliers due to a concussion. Per the NBA’s concussion protocol, he has to be symptom-free for 24 hours before he can be cleared to return.
The center was hit in the face by a teammate during Monday’s practice, then was sent home from practice Tuesday when he became nauseous.
“He felt good Monday and he felt good Monday night. He actually slept good Monday night, no symptoms that were reported,” Stevens said before last night’s game. “He came to practice, when he was lifting and shooting, he felt good there. He was cleared to practice and then, when he got into a few drills, then he started feeling some nausea. And so that’s why he ultimately was stopped and removed and went home. Then, later on in the afternoon (Tuesday), he saw Dr. ( Guy) Napolitana and was diagnosed with a concussion. Now he’s in the protocol. He felt better today but still had some symptoms.” . . .
Tyler Zeller, who is used to this kind of call from the bench, started in Horford’s place and finished with 11 points, including the first five of the fourth quarter.
“No. 1, Tyler has been there, done that here,” Stevens said of Zeller’s history of going for long stretches of time without playing. “He’s a guy whose started games for us, started big games for us, and has played really well. He’s able to do both, come off the bench or start. With his size and (Chicago’s) rebounding, we’ll need guys to get them off the glass. It doesn’t mean only he has to rebound. We’ll need our guards to rebound and block out a lot.”
Bradley’s in
Avery Bradley, undoubtedly with much relief, recovered from right shoulder soreness in time to start. The guard did a little of everything with 13 points, four assists and five rebounds. He took a cortisone shot Tuesday to help the process, and said he doesn’t want to try that again.
“But I wanted to play today so I’ll just do anything,” Bradley said. “Just to help our team. Just wanted to play. I don’t want to miss any games this year, so I’m going to do whatever it (takes) to get back out there on the floor.”
Teammates kidded Bradley that the shoulder must have come out of joint after he went for a career-high 31 points Saturday’s road win against the Charlotte Hornets. But considering he’s a veteran of double shoulder surgery, he had some deep worries.
The soreness has bothered him since the start of training camp.
“At first I was worried until we did the X-ray and everything came back perfect. Yeah, my shoulders are good,” he said. “It has to be sleeping on it. There’s nothing that happened in practice or in a game or anything. So it was just sleeping wrong. That’s it and irritated it a little bit. I slept on one side and it started bothering me. I mean, (Tuesday) it felt bad. But now I feel great.”