Robb: Celtics should wave white flag on top seed in wake of Kyrie Irving injury

Catching the Toronto Raptors was always going to be a challenge for this undermanned Celtics squad. The East leaders up north have won 15 of 16 overall, and are rolling on all cylinders with good health, elite scorers in the backcourt and a deep bench unit capable of picking up the slack for the starters on any given night.

Based on that, Boston faced long odds to keep pace with Toronto, but the chase for the top seed in the East may have come to a premature end on Sunday night. Not only did the Celtics lose to the Pacers 99-97 to drop 3.5 games behind the Raptors in the standings, they lost Kyrie Irving to left knee soreness for the second time in the past week. The All-Star did not return to Sunday’s loss in the second half after scoring seven points in 15 minutes before intermission.

“It started in Houston,” Irving said of the soreness after the game. “Just aching. After a few days it usually just subsides. But it’s been aching for a little bit, so I’m just going to do what’s necessary to get to where I need to be and that’s it.”

The obvious choice now for the Celtics is to rest Irving and make sure that knee gets right. Still, one look at the standings indicates they should go further than that. Extended rest for all the regulars (injured or not) should become the top focus for this group, perhaps a few weeks ahead of schedule, for the rest of the regular season. Despite having two head to head meetings left with Toronto, the top seed should no longer be a priority for this undermanned roster. 

The way the Irving knee situation developed should serve as a warning for how the Celtics should handle this roster the rest of the way. Brad Stevens admitted after the game he did not know Irving’s knee was an issue until the point guard came into the locker room at halftime.

“I had no idea, but at halftime he was talking about it,” Stevens explained. “He felt some soreness in it, probably similar to the Houston game in the third quarter, and was getting it worked on after halftime. We don’t know what it is above general knee soreness and I think that’s the case, but we will go and get as much testing as we need to. We think its general knee soreness and he doesn’t seem overly concerned big picture wise with it, but it’s obviously been giving him fits here and there for the last five to eight days or so.”

The Celtics have nicely managed Irving all season long with the long view in mind. They’ve kept his minutes down to a career-low 32.1 per game. They’ve given him extra days off as a precaution for a variety of injury issues that have popped up (quad contusion, broken bone in face, etc.). However, health concerns have always been part of the package for Irving as a player.

He has played fewer than 60 regular season games in three of his six NBA seasons and he underwent left knee surgery in 2015 to replace a fractured kneecap.

Despite the obvious connection with the surgically repaired knee, Irving tried to downplay the problem after the defeat.

"I'm not concerned. Where we are in the season, I'm pretty comfortable," Irving said. "I think that, competitively, I think that's more or less what I'm concerned about. When I actually do get back on the floor, I want to feel the level I expect myself to be at and I want to play at and being able to sustain it. Right now, I'm not able to do that. I just got to do that."

Last week on Toucher and Rich, Danny Ainge hinted the knee issue was a situation that Irving would have to manage for the rest of his career.

"I don't think it's anything serious, but we want Kyrie healthy and fresh," Ainge said on Thursday. "And he carries a heavy burden, the offensive load that he carries, so we're OK with him missing some games. We feel like we have a deep roster, and we need him to be healthy and fresh."

That type of situation makes it clear what the play is for the Celtics here, not just with Irving, but with the rest of their injury-ravaged roster. The priority now needs to be getting as healthy as possible before the postseason.

Boston was already shorthanded on Sunday with Jaylen Brown (concussion) and Al Horford (illness) out of the lineup, even before the Irving knee pain cropped up again. Marcus Smart (sprained thumb) and Daniel Theis (knee pain) also suffered injuries against the Pacers, while Shane Larkin (knee) continues to be limited by playing time restrictions (under 20 minutes per game).

That leaves the Celtics with roughly eight healthy bodies on their roster, but that shouldn’t really be a concern as far as playoff seeding goes if they don’t care about the top seed. Boston has a comfortable seven-game lead over the Pacers for the second seed in the East with only 15 games to play. Barring a disaster, they aren’t going to blow that lead even if they lack key members of the rotation in the lineup for the next couple weeks here.

Irving, for one, sees the writing on the wall and sounds ready to shut things down for a bit after another setback.

"I think [rest] will probably be the best thing, just instead of kind of hoping it gets better over the two or three days that it usually does," Irving said. "It's aching a little bit more than I wanted it to now, so I'm taking the necessary time."

Stevens also recognized that this team isn’t going anywhere in April and May without their best players feeling good.

“We got to get Kyrie (Irving) feeling great,” he admitted. “We got to get Al (Horford) feeling better, got to get Jaylen Brown back, we got a lot of work to do here with regards to training staff and health. Again, none of those things seem to be long-term concerns, but we are going to make sure that obviously, we’re very alert. As we said if he could’ve kept going, but it was less than 100 percent that wouldn’t have been worth it right now.”

Sometimes, the allure of the higher seed can prove to be a detriment to the rest equation down the stretch of the season but the standings couldn’t be set up better for the C’s to take their foot off the gas. They have enough time left in the season to get everyone feeling right and that goal has moved up to the top of the priority list after Sunday night.