Every morning, we compile the links of the day and dump them here… highlighting the big storyline. Because there’s nothing quite as satisfying as a good morning dump.
Al Horford has been limited to 25 minutes as he returns from a case of knee tendinitis, which the team has treated very carefully, and both Aron Baynes (broken hand) and Robert Williams (strained groin) have missed the last three games, in which the Celtics have gone 1-2.
Horford, speaking to MassLive after Tuesday’s loss to San Antonio, said his knee has experienced no pain since his return to action.
“For me, it’s tough being on the minute restrictions, but I understand the big picture, making sure I’m fine and I don’t have to miss any time,” Horford said. “But it’s fine. It’s been feeling good.”
I remember the summer of 2017, when the Celtics shook up their training staff, and we all kind of wondered if maybe the team had concerns about how the training staff had managed some of the team’s injuries.
Two seasons later, and the Celtics are roughly as banged up as they were in 2016/17, and it’s starting to feel like a team that is ostensibly rather young is always going to have a few guys out or on minutes restrictions for various dings, bumps and bruises.
The Celtics certainly could’ve used more big man minutes against the Spurs last night, specifically against LaMarcus Aldridge; however, Tom Westerholm, as usual, puts in a bit of perspective as a reminder:
The Celtics have reinforcements coming soon, but they will remain patient with Horford. For a postseason-oriented Boston team, the long game is more important than a few discouraging losses in December.
I’m not exactly a fan of the team taking the slow-and-easy approach to the regular season that characterized the tail-end of the Paul Pierce era, but if that’s what they’ve got to do to get everybody healthy, that’s what they’ve gotta do.
Page 2: Where Kyrie’s got scratched corneas
Irving took an inadvertent elbow to the eye from the Spurs’ Marco Belinelli with 7:32 left in the game. He returned with 4:37 remaining and scored two of his 16 points and had a steal. He hit 7 of 14 shots on the night and had eight assists.
“It’s both eyes,” Irving, wearing sunglasses, told reporters after the game. “He [Belinell] smacked the s— out of me. He caught me pretty good.”
Ok, two things:
- Someone needs to bring back the Kareem goggles, and I nominate Kyrie.
- How does Marco Belinelli still have a job in the NBA? Seriously. This guy must have the best agent on dry land. He doesn’t play defense. He’s about as useful as a traffic cone when he doesn’t have the ball. When does have the ball he shoots it regardless of whether or not he’s got a decent shot. And every year his name crops up around the waiver deadline as a potential ‘piece’ that could help whichever mid-pack playoff team has delusions of grandeur (last year it was the Sixers). And his name always crops up around the waiver deadline because by that time whichever team has him is tired of him and will spend good money to be rid of him. (Don’t believe me? Check out his overall advanced numbers: They’re terrible)
The rest of the links — including John’s first game bylines:
MassLive: Boston Celtics defense collapses in 120-111 loss to San Antonio Spurs* | Kyrie Irving injury: Boston Celtics star suffers scratched eye in loss to San Antonio* | Boston Celtics’ Jaylen Brown downplays 30 points vs. Spurs in loss, but Brad Stevens not surprised | Boston Celtics fall to San Antonio Spurs: The Celtics played with fire and got burned, plus 10 things we learned
Boston Herald: Celtics drop ball in third quarter of loss to Spurs
NBC Sports: “Can’t win playing that way”
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