The Boston Celtics are slowly working their way back towards health, but it will still be a little while before Marcus Smart take the floor again.
Gordon Hayward, on the other hand, might be available to play against the Toronto Raptors on Christmas Day in Canada, a team dealing with plenty of their own injury issues.
“[Hayward] had a pretty good workout this morning and felt better than he’s felt,” Brad Stevens explained Sunday afternoon (per MassLive’s John Karalis). “I’ll say that he’s pretty close”.
“Probably, I would guess, he’d be bumped up to probable after today,” he added. [That’s] up to the trainers and him.”
Smart, on the other hand, has been making slower if steady progress with his eye infection. “Marcus Smart is doing better,” explained Stevens.
“He was actually at the facility, or going to the facility tonight to get on the floor and shoot a little bit … he missed the game against Miami, played against Denver, and then, but really since December 1st, that’s the only day he’s been out on a court.”
“He’s going to get some shots up and assuming all goes well, we can work him out and start the process of coming back to play tomorrow,” remarked the former Butler coach.
Stevens doesn’t anticipate the Texan defensive menace back on the court for the Christmas day game, but doesn’t think he’s too much further away from a return, either.
“It’s different when you have an injury like Gordon did and work for four straight weeks. Now you’ve got Marcus — he just hasn’t been able to see anything.”
With Pascal Siakam, Marc Gasol and Norm Powell all likely to miss the holiday tilt, it may make more sense to avoid rushing either back if they do not feel completely ready to return.
Whatever ends up happening north of the border this Christmas, it’s sounding like a healthy roster might just be on tap for the new year.
