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Adrian Wojnarowski reported Monday that the Boston Celtics are confident that the left knee soreness Kyrie Irving has been dealing with is attributed to tendinitis.
There's confidence that Boston Celtics guard Kyrie Irving's left knee soreness is no more than tendonitis and that he will not need to miss significant time, league sources tell ESPN. Irving is considered day-to-day.
— Adrian Wojnarowski (@wojespn) March 12, 2018
This is good news for Irving and the Celtics. Irving has said that he has been dealing with soreness in his left knee since the team’s loss in Houston on March 3rd. Irving missed the Celtics’ game against the Chicago Bulls last week, and did not return for the second half of the team’s home loss to Indiana on Sunday.
Irving suffered a broken kneecap in his left knee during the 2015 NBA Finals, and there have been multiple reports that Irving will need a follow-up procedure soon to clean up his knee. For this to just be tendinitis has to be a relief to a Celtics team that can’t seem to stay healthy this season.
Here’s a Brad Stevens quote from practice today on how they would handle Irving going forward.
#NEBHInjuryReport: Brad Stevens says Kyrie Irving’s knee is feeling about the same today as it did yesterday. “I would assume that we would tread slowly,” the coach says regarding Kyrie’s expected return.
— Boston Celtics (@celtics) March 12, 2018
The Celtics have 15 games remaining in the regular season and will likely take precautionary measures with their roster as the playoffs draw closer. They currently sit 3.5 games behind Toronto for the one seed, and are ahead of the three seed by 7.5 games.