Smart's Comfort Level Surges After Adjustment to Thumb Splint

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Smart's Comfort Level Surges After Adjustment to Thumb Splint



By Marc D'Amico |  @Marc_DAmico
Celtics.com
May 4, 2018



PHILADELPHIA – There was one key difference between Marcus Smart in Game 2 and Marcus Smart in Game 1, and it wasn’t his shooting.

It was the splint on his right thumb.

Smart shot just 3-for-12 during Game 1, and two days later while speaking to the media, he revealed that the splint he had worn on his surgically-repaired thumb had been causing heavy discomfort.

“The one last game was really digging into my thumb,” he said before Wednesday’s practice, “and it was causing me to not catch the ball the way I wanted to or get a grip on it and things like that.”

Smart went on to say that the training staff was working on “cutting it (the splint) down” in the hopes of alleviating the discomfort.

The staff did make an adjustment to the splint prior to Game 2, and it worked wonders.

“It feels so much better,” Smart told Cetics.com Friday afternoon, as he shook his head with a sigh of relief. “It takes a lot of pressure off my thumb. It was really pinching and digging in.”

Smart removed the wrap around split, which is placed on the back of his thumb, to show Celtics.com exactly what he had been experiencing. When he removed the wrap and the splint, he pointed out a slight mark that was approximately an inch long that still existed from the previous iteration of the splint. The mark ran from the webbing between his right thumb and his right index finger and extended down along the inner portion of his thumb.

“It was a little bit longer than I wanted,” Smart explained as he pointed out how the first splint sat on his thumb. “So we had to cut it down to still give me that range of motion to be able to move it and still be able to stabilize it.”

To alleviate the discomfort, the team’s training staff shaved off a portion of the length of the right side of the splint. The adjustment was not substantial in terms of the size, but the results were significant.

Smart, who started his second straight game, came out during Game 2 and looked comfortable from the get-go. He made his first two shots Thursday night, both of which were 3-pointers, and he scored eight points during the first quarter. Smart also scored five critical points during the second quarter as the Celtics thrashed away at Philadelphia’s 22-point lead.

His comfort appeared to continue into Friday afternoon. Smart took the court with his teammates for practice at the Wells Fargo Center, and he was not seen tugging at or adjusting the splint at all during the portion of practice that was open to the media. He also shot the ball well from 3-point range during a post-practice shooting competition with Marcus Morris.

For Smart, his upgraded shooting during Game 2 wasn’t about his stroke or his rhythm. Instead, it was about his comfort level.

With an updated version of his splint, he is feeling more comfortable than he had at any point since his injury back on March 11. He proved as much during Game 2, and he’ll look to carry that comfort into Game 3 Saturday afternoon.


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