When Marcus Smart tore his left calf muscle during a Jan. 30 game against the Lakers, the Celtics’ medical staff estimated that he would return in two to three weeks.
But two weeks in, the Celtics guard said he’s still in pain — enough so that Smart said there is “no real timeline” for his return.
“Feeling good, each day I’m feeling better. Obviously nowhere near where we wanted to be to coming back, but we knew that,” he said before Friday’s game against Detroit. “Really just taking it slow, just taking it day by day.
“There’s no real timeline I can give because like I said, taking it day by day. (Saturday) makes two weeks, 14 days. So my body is definitely healing the way that we expected it to, but it’s definitely going to take some time. We’d rather be safe than sorry.”
Smart said that he has been able to take part in some “light” basketball activity, but nothing that points to an imminent return.
“Nothing crazy. I’m steady, able to get my shots up,” he said. “I’m able to run a little bit off it, not as much. I’m probably, I would say, 30 to 40 percent running-wise. But just mostly doing a lot of testing, getting my calf stronger and doing a lot of calf raises and things of that nature to strengthen it, and just getting ready to hopefully get to the standpoint of stage 3 or 4 where I’m full-court running and really just going all out to really test the thing.
“It’s tough just because being hurt, the whole process, it takes time. As a player, as a competitor, you obviously want it to be faster, but it doesn’t happen that way. You have to listen to your body and let your body do what it does. So in that aspect, that’s what I kind of what I mean by not being where I personally want to be, but we are making great strides. We were definitely ahead of schedule then what we thought we would be with the type of injury, I’m able to finally walk with a slight limp. Put more pressure on it, load it a little more, light jog with light movements, basketball movements, so that’s a good thing. I’ve done some things on the court just trying to load it, and test it out. Definitely have a ways to go, but we’re headed in the right direction.”
There is one thing for which Smart is grateful after suffering the non-contact injury — it wasn’t an Achilles injury.
“Where I felt it in my calf, I knew exactly it was my calf,” he said. “But it could’ve been worse, so I’m thankful for that.”
C’s honor Russell
Bill Russell turned 87 on Friday, and as evidenced by his ability to blow out all 87 candles on a long birthday cake (later posted to Twitter), he can, as he noted in the video, “kick ass” on old age.
The Celtics put together a video to honor the occasion, with every player sending their best wishes. The video was patterned after a tribute put together in the Orlando bubble by the Raptors for the team president — former Celtic Wayne Embry.
“We saw the Raptors run a really cool campaign in the bubble called ‘Because of You,’ where they featured Wayne Embry and we piggybacked off that and ran it really about Bill, and all of our players got a chance to speak on camera,” said Brad Stevens. “And all of us had a chance to really talk about, and just consider his impact.
“Consider his impact as one of the greatest teammates and winners of all time, in any sport, and his impact, socially, and his continued loud voice on what is right. I haven’t had a chance to spend much time with him. I’ve met him on just a couple of occasions. First time I met him was my first home game I coached here and we blew a 24-point lead at halftime and lost the game. I’ve always felt bad about that. He is everything you want to be represented by. I’ve said this many times, when you think about his impact on and off the court, he’s in very rarefied air and I can’t think of a better representative of our sport or the Celtics.”
Fitting it together
Smart’s slow recovery considered, Stevens has a lot more juggling ahead of him where the rotation is concerned.
“I think this is kind of who we are right now,” said the Celtics coach. “And I think that if you compare it year to year, I would say that, obviously, there’s a lot more unknown, I’d say this year than there maybe was in the last couple. So those are just things that you learn as you go through your time together as new players adapt to the league as young players, and show what they’re capable of, or show how consistent they can be, and then, as new players adapt to your team that aren’t young. So I would just say that there was more known in previous years.”
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Marcus Smart: No real timeline for return from calf injury - Boston Herald
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