Twelve days ago, Celtics [team stats] management said Kevin Garnett would miss roughly 10 days with a hyperextended right knee.
Doc Rivers obviously had to amend that number last night, and offered up another 10-day window for the forward’s return.
But this time the Celtics coach believes he is right. The reason was Garnett’s workout yesterday, his first full-fledged run, minus the odd shootaround, since Dec. 30.
“In the next 10 days, in that area,” Rivers said before last night’s 102-96 loss to the Atlanta Hawks. “Now I’m pretty sure it’s in the next 10 days. He started working out today for the first time. Now it’s just a conditioning thing. We want to make sure he’s strong and back in shape, because he literally hasn’t done anything. Ten days to two weeks is what it will take, but I think it will be 10 days with him.
“Trying to hold him down for those extra four will be very difficult. (But) he biked and ran (yesterday). It was pretty good.”
Indeed, management is now convinced that Garnett’s knee is sound, and that he simply has to work back into shape.
“I’m confident because of what our doctors and trainers say,” general manager Danny Ainge said. “They tell us the knee is good.”
That only accentuates Garnett’s patience, a virtue he developed last season in the months leading up to his right knee surgery to sand down a bone spur.
“For him it’s been a minor miracle . . . it’s been very good,” Rivers said of Garnett’s ability to stay off the floor without imploding. “It was good for him, I guess, but I’ve never been a big believer in that whole rest thing. That’s been the talk in the league for the last three or four years. But I don’t remember Michael (Jordan) sitting out for three or four weeks so he could be ready for the playoffs.
“I think they like to play, personally, but in this case it was the smart thing to do because it was only going to get worse if he played. Players want to play. If you sit them it puts them out of it more.”
Sheed unavailable
Garnett may not be the only Celtic on the mid-range plan. Rasheed Wallace, a game-time scratch because of what the team described as a sore left forefoot, may be a week away from his next action.
“It’s day to day, but I would say maybe a week,” Rivers said. “It’s a toe, foot, I’m not sure what it is. I know it started hurting him after the game last night (in Toronto). He was saying his foot bothered him. And then this morning it got bigger, I guess. But when he came to (last night’s) game he thought he was going to play. He actually went out and tried to warm up, and then he came (back) in and said ‘coach, I can’t go.’ ”
Glen Davis started in Wallace’s place.
Join the club
The Hawks, by beating the Celtics twice in four days, joined a rather bizarre group. According to the Elias Sports Bureau, the previous three teams to beat the C’s twice in four days included Washington (2008), Chicago (2007) and New Jersey (2006). . . .
Marquis Daniels, who worked on passing drills before the game, is still expected to resume playing following next month’s All-Star break. . . .
The North Station concourse will be renamed in honor of Red Auerbach, the late Celtics [team stats] patriarch, during a ceremony Friday.
Posts
