Isaiah Thomas will not play this weekend

Isaiah Thomas will not travel this weekend to NY and Philly. He's out with a right knee bone bruise. #NEBHInjuryReport

— Boston Celtics (@celtics) March 16, 2017

Somewhere along the way in last night’s win over Minnesota, Isaiah Thomas bumped his right knee somewhere. It’s either (a) enough of a nuisance that sitting Thomas for a few days to let it heal is a good idea or (b) enough of an excuse to get Isaiah Thomas, who did NOT have a full All Star break, a few extra days off to get some rest.

I’m just guessing here, but considering the Celtics next face the Brooklyn Nets and Philadelphia 76’ers, I’m leaning towards the latter. Also because this:

There's not much concern about Isaiah's injury on the Celtics' end. Sounds like they expect him to be fine.

— Adam Himmelsbach (@AdamHimmelsbach) March 16, 2017

Brad Stevens has said he’d like to take this opportunity to get more cohesion and minutes from his starters, but the starters looked pretty damn cohesive last night. And while not having Thomas hurts, putting Marcus Smart in the starting PG spot is not a bad option at all against Brooklyn and Philly.

As I said in the latest Locked On Celtics podcast, Smart is a very good passer, and obviously tremendous defender, and actually a pretty good corner 3-point shooter. Starting him at the top of the offense and letting him work his way down into the corner is a MUCH better option than starting him off the ball and having him swing up above the break to take longer 3’s.

So I expect Smart to have a couple of really good bounce-back games this weekend… maybe so much so that some of the trolls start chirping about bringing Isaiah off the bench.

Here’s the latest podcast for you to check out my take on Smart, as well as a schedule breakdown of the Celtics and Wizards to see the seeding will shake out atop the East.

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