Celtics guard Marcus Smart missed his second straight game on Tuesday versus Miami after sustaining a sprained right ankle Saturday against Toronto. While there’s no official timeline for his return, and he plans to be cautious in his recovery, he hopes to return in a “week or two,” per Souichi Terada of MassLive.com.
“I don’t want to go out there and just rush back,” Smart said pregame Tuesday, “and we’re in this same predicament a couple months from now, a couple days from now, a couple weeks from now when I do come back and it just stays lingering than it has to.”
According to Terada, Smart was unable to put weight on his ankle and had to be helped off the floor by Boston’s training staff. The 28-year-old says he aggravated an old injury, as he dealt with a bone bruise on the outside of his ankle during last year’s playoff run.
“I got the bone bruise on the outside, but now I’m dealing with the bone bruise on the inside as well,” Smart said. “Some scar tissue that was there. That’s really it. So we’re just taking it one day at a time.”
As Terada writes, the Celtics are pretty shorthanded tonight. In addition to Smart, Jaylen Brown (adductor management), Al Horford (lower back stiffness) and Malcolm Brogdon (personal reasons) are all out.
Through 41 games (32.4 MPG), the reigning Defensive Player of the Year is averaging 11.1 PPG, 3.4 RPG, 7.2 APG and 1.3 SPG on .422/.333/.787 shooting. Backup guard Payton Pritchard should continue to play an increased role with his fellow backcourt teammates out — he got his second start of the season on Tuesday.