An MRI revealed Monday that Garnett has ankle inflammation and team president of basketball operations Danny Ainge said they will allow Garnett to rest up to two weeks.
The center's injury is not season-ending, but they want to make sure he's in top shape for a playoff run. "Take a couple of Advil and give it some rest. Could he play tomorrow? Yeah, but we're not playing him tomorrow," said Ainge.
"The time frame, I don't know, it's not an ankle sprain but there's inflammation in the ankle, sort of like an ankle sprain in unpredictability. So I think that it's not longer than three weeks or it could be a week. I'll guess two weeks just because we want to make sure he's really ready. We need to get him fresh anyway," Ainge added.
Coach Doc Rivers was unsure when Garnett injured his ankle. He had only been back two games after being out because of the flu and a strained abductor muscle, playing for 36 points and 18 rebounds in 29 minutes a game.
"The first I heard of it was Friday night," said Rivers. "I don't know if he hurt it in the game Friday night or a couple of games ago. I have no idea."
Rivers is not concerned about this being a season-ending injury for Garnett, saying "We're going to err on the right side, whatever they decide. If they give me an option of you can play him every third game or give him two weeks rest, I can tell you right now I am going to say two weeks rest," Rivers said.
The Celtics are one of the few teams in sports that will chose to rest their players and keep them healthy over winning games down the stretch.
Courtney Lee is feeling better and was listed as probable for yesterday's game against the New York Knicks. Monday Rivers said, "Courtney could play tomorrow... I don't think Kevin's playing tomorrow, I'm almost positive of that. Then, we want to make sure, is that Garnett is going to be good soon."
Lee had to be carried off the court Friday night after spraining his left ankle in the 104-94 loss to the Dallas Mavericks. He sprained the ankle with 1:51 left in the fourth quarter when he landed on the foot of Mavericks point guard Mike James while trying to pressure an inbound pass. Lee lay on the ground and was helped off the court by teammates.
Lee had hoped to play on Saturday, but he later said, "The best thing to do is rest it this game, and then we have two days before a practice tomorrow. I thought I'd be able to play, but I've twisted my ankle quite a few times, but this was a good one. It rolled all the way. It swelled up quite a bit, but it didn't turn black and blue at all. I'm definitely thankful that it wasn't worse, the way that we've been going down."
Reference: Boston Globe
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