Erik Spoelstra nailed it when he said last night that “there's guys that are far from 100 percent on both sides.” Both teams are dealing with injuries that are hampering their chances of success. Miami might be less equipped to deal with their injuries, but it sure looked like Boston’s were causing some issues, especially in the first half.
Jayson Tatum was seen rubbing his shoulder and swinging a dead arm on a few occasions. Marcus Smart was clearly hobbled by his right ankle sprain. And Robert Williams isn’t exactly moving fluidly and has been declared “day-to-day” for the remainder of the playoffs.
So what exactly are these guys dealing with? I talked to sports medicine doctor and BSJ contributor Dr. Jessica Flynn to get a little better understanding of what the Celtics are going through.
Note: She has not had any direct involvement with the Celtics or these specific injuries. These are general comments about these types of injuries.
JAYSON TATUM: RIGHT CERVICAL NERVE IMPINGEMENT
He’s no longer on the injury report, but it’s obvious by the way he was grabbing at his right trapezius muscle during the game that something is still going on.
“Yeah, it was bothering me,” Tatum admitted. “I got Nick (Sang), my trainer, he takes care of me. We just figure it out.”
The first thing that needs to be clear is that this isn’t a shoulder injury. It’s what we used to call a pinched nerve.
“There's a nerve that's coming from the neck that's being pinched somewhere,” Flynn said. “It can cause symptoms like muscle spasm and just horrible nerve pain down the arm. And it's the kind of thing where the symptoms can wax and wane, so he could be feeling okay one moment and then the next moment be in more pain. And it's tough to manage just like any other injury this deep into the postseason, because there is no time for rest.”
Rest would be the key to calming this down for Tatum, along with the possibility of some anti-inflammatories and massages to loosen the area. One reason why the injury can be so confusing for fans is that he looks fine on some plays, even lowering the shoulder into players to get to the rim, and then something benign can trigger the pain.
“It can be just turning his head one way, tilting his neck to one side, stretching his arm back or compression like someone running into his arm or his shoulder,” Flynn said, but she stresses that this doesn’t seem like a significant injury. “It more than likely just needs some time to get better.”
ROBERT WILLIAMS: LEFT KNEE BONE BRUISE/MENISCUS SURGERY RECOVERY
Williams has been in and out of the playoffs, first with the recovery from his meniscus surgery and second with a bone bruise the Celtics say was suffered in a collision with Giannis Antetokounmpo.
Ime Udoka has characterized what Williams is going through as a natural part of the healing process from meniscus surgery, and Dr. Flynn agrees.
“Bone bruising can happen just as a reaction to surgery,” she said. “Sometimes when people have surgery on their meniscus, you can get an MRI a few months later and see bruising in the bone.”
Add to things the fact that Williams is a giant pogo stick and he puts some added pressure on his body. Dr. Flynn says Williams' ability to change directions and jump in an instant (and jump pretty high) along with his size means he’s tough on his knees.
The important thing, though, is to understand that this does not appear to be something putting Williams at risk for long-term issues. The bad news is that it’s not out of the question that Williams could miss more time in the short term.
“A guy who just had meniscus surgery, and then is playing again on a deep playoff run, is going to have some issues with inflammation,” she said. “The fact that he just has to manage this, and maybe he might miss a game here and there, is absolutely reasonable.”
MARCUS SMART: RIGHT ANKLE SPRAIN
Smart came into the series nursing a right midfoot sprain, which may not have led to the injury per se, but it didn’t help the recovery process.
“I'm sure he was still feeling discomfort from that because he had just been limping a few days before it,” Dr. Flynn said. “It didn't surprise me that adrenaline allowed him to come back out and he was able to finish that game. … but that's something again, an ankle sprain, you kind of need to rest and so he's just going to play, try to recover for the next game, and then play, and it should slowly get better.”
An ankle sprain destabilizes the ankle, so there's a risk of spraining the ankle again. But as far as long-term risk goes, he should be fine.
“I think it's reasonable for a professional athlete at this level to try to play through an injury like that and just try to manage the symptoms as best you can,” Dr. Flynn said.
The bottom line for these injuries, in a nutshell, is that these nagging injuries will continue for however long Boston is still alive. None of these are going away.
“Most things are not this late in the season because nothing can be rested,” Dr. Flynn said. “Nothing really can be cured before the Celtics come away with the championship.”