Kemba Walker dealing with bone bruise heading into Game 3

Tell me if you’ve heard this before this season: the Celtics are banged up heading into tonight’s game.

Earlier in the day, the Celtics official injury report listed Kemba Walker as “available” after calling him “questionable with a left knee medial bone bruise” yesterday after practice. Just before tipoff, Brad Stevens provided details on Walker and was quick to point out that Walker’s knee issue doesn’t stem from the procedure last fall.

“He had a little bit of a pain from a specific moment in Game 2 and so, went and got it scanned and had a little bit of a bone bruise in there. He was pretty sore yesterday, went through stuff this morning, felt a little bit better,” Stevens said. “I think they say he’s available. He still will go through his pregame stuff and I told him to be very upfront with me as he goes through it and how he feels. Obviously, we don’t want to put him in a bad spot. We only want him to play if he feels great and if he’s healthy.”

Stevens anticipates that he’ll play, but he reiterated that the team won’t put him on the floor if there’s any danger of him hurting himself long term.

Walker closed the regular season on fire. In his final six games, he was averaging 28.5 points on 51.3% shooting (43.9% 3FG%) and 4.2 assists a night. So far in two games against the Nets, he’s shot just 37% from the field for 16 points.