Stop me if you've heard this before, but Kevin Garnett is "close" but not quite ready to return to the lineup. Initially, KG was hurt on December 29th in Detroit when he strained his calf simply jumping to complete a slam dunk. Danny Ainge initially gave a general estimate of a two-week return for KG on his weekly radio appearance on WEEI. Now, per the official Celtics' Twitter feed:
I'm sure this is going to conjure up those dreaded memories from February-May of 2009 when the Celtics were incessantly vague about KG's knee injury as well as his return. I don't think the mad release of cynicism should be unleashed just yet, but Doc and Danny should just stick to the side of "he'll be ready when he's ready" theme to help quell the constant inquiries about when players will return from an injury.
Remember, Rondo talked his way into his return from an ankle sprain just minutes before tip-off so everybody is different. The Celtics might also want to bring him back against the Charlotte Bobcats on Friday instead of tossing him out there against the red hot Orlando Magic for his first game back. While it's not something they can completely control it would probably be better for KG to work out a little rust against a team like the Bobcats instead of a Magic team that will be amped up.
Either way I think we can safely assume this is nothing like 2009 and KG is fine and will return within the next game or two. For the most part fans just hear an exact time frame and get frustrated when it's not that date, which is understandable. But, the big picture is what needs to stay in focus, and that's having all of the main players healthy come April through June.
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