Before Kevin Garnett went down for good last spring, and took the Celtics [team stats]’ shot at a title repeat with him, the team barely had been nicked.
Indeed, the 2008-09 Celtics appeared to be on the same road to good health as the previous season.
And then there are these attrition-riddled Celtics. Marquis Daniels, expected to return soon after the All-Star break, has missed 18 games to a thumb surgery. Glen Davis missed 27 for the same reason. Garnett, now nursing a hyperextension on his surgically repaired knee, has missed eight games to that injury and one to a thigh bruise. Paul Pierce [stats], though playing, is not back to full speed following two procedures to drain fluid out of his right knee, which forced a five-game absence.
Rasheed Wallace missed his third straight game to a sore foot during Thursday’s threadbare loss to a bad Chicago team. Perhaps all concerned should give thanks that Rajon Rondo [stats] missed only one game to a sore hamstring, and has played through most of his trouble.
And these are strictly top-of-the-rotation players.
Much of this will pass, though. Wallace is expected back next week, and Garnett has been given a Jan. 22 return date at home against Portland.
And then there’s the All-Star break. That, they all hope, will be the time when everything is forgiven.
Perhaps it’s too much to think this team will be healthy for the stretch run, but dreaming doesn’t cost much.
“I can’t see why we would not be,” Doc Rivers said of the possibility that total health can make a return for the playoffs. “We’re working our way through it. If we can come back after the All-Star break healthy, and go through the rest of the season that way, that would be phenomenal.
“With all of the injuries we’ve had, and even with guys like Paul and Tony (Allen) just starting to get right, we have to win every game we can win.”
That’s only one reason Thursday’s sloppy loss to the Bulls carried such a sting.
“We have to play with an amazing focus in every game,” said Rivers, who in a way doesn’t want to hear that Garnett, Wallace and Daniels are walking through that door anytime soon.
Like the players actually on the floor, he can’t afford the luxury of a look into the trainer’s room.
“We’ve got to play with the guys in hand,” said Pierce. “We played shorthanded last year, and we won a lot of games, so that’s not an excuse.”
Using the Bulls as an example, he said: “We’ve got to go out there and know that Chicago is a great rebounding team. They have been the last few years . . . We’ve got to do a better job of taking their strengths away.”
They will play at least one more game in their current state, Monday against a Dallas team that is a much better than the Bulls.
“Yeah, we do,” Rivers said of whether this team has as much depth as first thought. “We just have a lot of injuries right now. When you have a lot of injuries, with three of your top six players out, it’s going to be tough.
“Like I said a few days ago, we want to win all of these games,” he said. “And we’re working our way through it. We’re doing OK, but we have to do better. Hopefully, we get Rasheed back Monday or Wednesday and Kevin back at the end of the week. But we can’t wait for them.”
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