Marcus Smart To Miss Time With Thumb Injury

Having confirmed a torn meniscus diagnosis for Daniel Theis, the Celtics appear to have received some more bad injury news on Monday. According to Shams Charania of Yahoo Sports (Twitter link), Marcus Smart suffered a torn tendon in his right thumb. Charania reports that Smart, who is getting a second opinion on the injury, will be ruled out indefinitely for the time being.

Charania’s report comes on the heels of a tweet from ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski, who suggested that the injury was still being called a sprain but was “under scrutiny” from Boston’s medical staff — a team spokesperson confirmed as much (Twitter link via Mark Murphy of The Boston Herald).

Wojnarowski said it was unclear whether Smart would be able to play through the injury, as he did on Sunday after initially sustaining it. Based on Charania’s report and the club’s announcement, it sounds like that won’t be possible.

Smart previously missed 11 games leading up to the All-Star break due to a hand laceration, and the Celtics struggled on defense without him. The team has shown an admirable ability to overcome injuries so far this season, but the roster depth will be tested now more than ever, with Smart, Theis, Jaylen Brown, and – of course – Gordon Hayward all out of action.

If those four players are all expected to remain on the shelf for at least the next weeks, the Celtics could apply for a hardship exception, which would allow the team to add a 16th player to its NBA roster. Still, head coach Brad Stevens said today after the announcement on Theis that he didn’t expect the C’s to sign anyone (Twitter link via Adam Himmelsbach of The Boston Globe).

The Celtics did get one piece of decent injury news today, according to ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski, who tweets that Kyrie Irving‘s knee soreness isn’t believed to be more serious than tendonitis. Irving won’t need to miss significant time, and is considered day-to-day, says Woj.