AVERY BRADLEY ‘VERY UNLIKELY’ TO RETURN TO SERIES, MARCUS SMART, KELLY OLYNYK ALSO BANGED UP

AVERY BRADLEY ‘VERY UNLIKELY’ TO RETURN TO SERIES, MARCUS SMART, KELLY OLYNYK ALSO BANGED UP

WEEI

By Mike Petraglia

The news on Avery Bradley does not sound promising for a return in the first round series against the Hawks.

Celtics coach Brad Stevens told reporters Sunday at the team’s practice at Georgia Tech that Bradley suffered a “pretty significant” strain of his right hamstring and is “very unlikely” to return at anytime during the rest of the series.

Bradley told Stevens during the game Saturday that he heard “a pop” but told reporters after the game that he would take every type of treatment and hold out hope of returning, if not Tuesday for Game 2 then sometime during the series.

On Sunday, Stevens made it sound like that would likely take an act of God.

“Certainly very unlikely Tuesday night (for Game 2),” Stevens told reporters before practice Sunday. “As of now I would say he’s out Tuesday night. Obviously he’ll continue to get treatment around the clock and go from there.”

Bradley injured his right hamstring after going up to block a shot from Hawks guard Jeff Teague with just over six minutes left in the fourth quarter Saturday night. He came down and began to race up court when he suddenly pulled up lame.

“We’ve obviously had games without him before, and we have to have other guys step up,” Stevens continued. “I think the biggest challenge is that we’re playing small anyways. So you might have to go even deeper into that, which is OK.”

So now, Stevens has to make up his mind as to whether he’ll go small and start three guards, as he did when Jae Crowder missed several weeks with a high right ankle sprain. Stevens started Marcus Smart, Avery Bradley and Isaiah Thomas before turning to Evan Turner for more size and scoring.

This case is different as Smart is clearly the second-best on-ball defender on the Celtics and is likely to draw either Jeff Teague or Kyle Korver.

“We’ll have to decide whether we’ll go with some of those young guys and go deep into the (bench) and play four smalls again, or if we’re gonna play more traditional again and go back to playing that way,” Stevens said. “So we’ll look at it and we’ll figure that out over the next 48 hours.”

The injury news didn’t end with Bradley. Marcus Smart (bruised left knuckle) also missed practice Sunday as a precaution. He and Stevens expect him to play in Game 2. Kelly Olynyk re-aggravated his shoulder injury from February in Game 1. He also is expected to be available on Tuesday.

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