Marcus Smart suffers mysterious hand injury, out vs. Clippers

LOS ANGELES -- Marcus Smart suffered a right hand laceration at the team hotel on Wednesday afternoon and went to an area hospital for stitches, according to head coach Brad Stevens.

The 23-year-old point guard will be sidelined for Wednesday's game against the Clippers due to the injury.

"He lacerated his hand on glass in the hotel, got stitches," Stevens said. "I don't know the full story. We're learning more about that. (Assistant general manager) Mike Zarren and (head of team security) Brian Dolan were with him at the hospital two hours ago (when he) got stitches. It doesn’t sound like a long-term injury, but we're doing more research on how it happened."

When pressed about the specifics of how Smart suffered the injury, Stevens did not want to reveal any details just yet.

"Obviously, I want to make sure that I'm thorough in telling you how it happened and what happened. But again, I think that he cut his hand in the hotel on glass sometime (Wednesday) afternoon," he said.

Stevens was unsure how many stitches Stevens received at the hospital.

BSJ Analysis: This sounds a little bit fishy for good reason. The team obviously has been in contact with Smart and is aware of what happened, but there appears to be a delay in determining how to reveal the nature of the injury. In the meantime, the situation for this Celtics team just got quite a bit rougher during a four-game losing streak. With Al Horford (possible concussion) sidelined, the Celtics will be down to 12 active players Wednesday night, with five of those being rookies. Shane Larkin will take a much bigger part in the Celtics rotation while Smart is out and Jabari Bird or Abdel Nader will get a chance at minutes as a bench wing.