Posted by Brian Robb on Mar 25, 2013 (16 minutes ago)
Doc Rivers held court with reporters today at Celtics’ practice in Waltham and CelticsHub was live on the scene for the Q and A session. The number one concern naturally was the status of prized power forward Kevin Garnett. The veteran big man missed Saturday night’s loss against Memphis with a left foot injury and was due to have an MRI on his foot yesterday. Rivers told reporters while the doctors are still analyzing those results, Garnett is likely to miss some time.
“I think the MRI stuff they’re still evaluating on Kevin. Courtney Lee could play tomorrow, but I don’t think we are going to have him practice today. I think we’ll know more later with Kevin. I’d say he’s doubtful for tomorrow. I don’t think he’s playing tomorrow. I’m almost positive of that. Then, what we want to make sure is that he’s going to be good soon,” Rivers said.
Reporters continued to press Rivers about the hazy status of Garnett. Just how bad was the injury and how many games could he miss?
Reporter: Do you worry about it being a long-term thing?
Doc: “I don’t know what long term is. Is he not going to play this year? I don’t worry about that. Can he miss four or five games? Yeah, that’s probably possible. I don’t know that [he will], but him being out [long-term] is not a concern for me.”
Reporter: So this is an injury that will be fine with proper maintenence?
Doc: “Yeah, unless something crazy happens in the MRI, which in the first look at it, [the doctors] didn’t see that. At the end of the day, he may miss some games, but we are going to err on the right side of whatever they decide. If they give me an option to play him every third game or give him two weeks rest, I can tell you right now I’ll pick the 2 weeks rest, if it’s my decision. At the end of the day, I want him right, I don’t want him half right.”
CH’s Take: This is about what we expected from our analysis this morning after hearing Cedric Maxwell’s comments. It’s a foot injury (hopefully just a bruise and not a break, which we will find out soon when the MRI results are announced) that will require some rest to heal. Could KG play through it? Probably, if it was the postseason. However, those games are a few weeks away, so the team is probably going to play it cautious with Garnett at the potential risk of taking a hit in the seeding in the East.
Is that the right move? No question about it. This team isn’t getting out of the first round without a healthy Garnett in the postseason, so that has to be the priority.
Source:
http://celticshub.com/2013/03/25/kevin-garnett-could-miss-four-or-five-games-with-foot-injury/
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