Herald Reveals Lee's Injury was Worse then Announced but a Lot Better Now

Here's another article by Steve Bulpett from yesterday's Boston Herald. He gets into detail about Lee's injury, which was far more extensive than I had thought.

Sam

Courtney Lee helps coach cope

By Steve Bulpett / Celtics Notebook | Saturday, October 20, 2012 Boston Celtics

ALBANY, N.Y. — Doc Rivers was upset when Ray Allen refused the Celtics [team stats]’ offer and ran into the arms of the rival Heat. He was hurt by the breakup.

But even while admitting some fractured feelings still exist, the coach acknowledged that the acquisition of Courtney Lee helped heal the wound. And now we’re getting a better idea why that’s the case.

Lee is coming back from a deep thigh contusion that he kept under wraps — and which kept him under basketball wraps most of September. His preseason play of late is giving the Celts even more confidence that they’ll be able to overcome the loss of a guard headed for the Hall of Fame.

Asked late Thursday night in Brooklyn when he finally got over the loss of Allen, Rivers said, “Oh, I embraced the challenge right away, so I moved past that part.

“I’ll always be disappointed with that because of the way it went down. But it is what it is, so I’m over it, but, you know, you’re always disappointed about stuff.

“But as far as our team, I moved on the next day. We were trying to build our team. We already had Jason Terry; we knew that. So my next move was Courtney. Courtney lives in Orlando. I saw him all the time. That was an easy recruitment. He works out with (my son) Austin every single day, so just invite him over for dinner after the workout.”

When it was suggested that, while Terry is a key pickup, Lee may have been the tipping point in his Ray recovery, Rivers smiled.

“Yeah, that helped,” he said. “That did. Getting Courtney helped a lot.”

Now Lee is in a better position to help even more. Even though he’s still made just 4-of-15 3-pointers, his outside shot is coming around — and there’s a physical reason for that. He was injured on Sept. 6 and didn’t get back playing until Sept. 28, a critical period to miss for a player seeking to come full speed into training camp.

“A lot of people don’t know that I was out three weeks before training camp, so I’m still trying to get my legs 100 percent back,” Lee said. “So you notice a lot of my shots, they’re not long they’re short. So that means I’ve got to get my legs back into it.”

Rivers is most pleased that Lee is getting his defense back into it. He had four steals against the Nets Thursday and could be a killer in the passing lanes.

“He was our best defender,” said Rivers. “He was terrific. He ran the floor, which he does. He does a lot of tough things. Courtney’s important for us. We want a defensive unit to start games.

“We thought he was (a good defensive player). He was in Orlando. The last winning team he was on, yes, he was a heck of a defender. And now he’s getting that back again, which is good.”

Said Lee, “That’s how I try to play every night. I just let my defense determine my offense. If you let the offense determine your defense, then you get yourself in a bad situation.”

The situation with the Celtics has gotten significantly more comfortable as time has gone by.

“If you go anywhere, it’s going to take a while because you’ve got to get used to everybody,” said Lee. “You’ve definitely got to get used to the guys. I mean, they did a good job of making that process quick.

“Playing with (Rajon) Rondo, he’s the easiest player to play with. Just make sure you’re in the right spot. And then with the other guys, all through training camp they’ve been talking me through plays and stuff like that. So the more I get comfortable with it, the more I get reps at it, the more preseason games we play, the better I’m going to be.”

Feel the Heat

The Celtics aren’t letting Miami stray from their thoughts — and not just because the Heat are their opponent on opening night.

“It’s in the back of our heads,” said Rondo. “There’s only about three or four guys that were here last year, and the new guys know what we have to do.

“They’re the team to beat. They’re the champions, so you’ve got to give them the respect. You’ve got to go out there and put it to them. And not just them — any team. It’s not just about the Heat. There’s teams that are going to contend, like the Nets, Chicago. You don’t want to count any teams out, so we have to come ready to play and know our stuff.” . . .

Don’t look for too many veteran regulars tonight against the Knicks.

“Maybe the last game they may play one good half,” said Rivers of tomorrow’s exhibition finale against the 76ers in Boston. “The New York game, I would be surprised . . . well, we’ve got to play somebody, but a lot of them are not playing in that game. They already know that. They knew that before (Thursday night’s) game.”

Reference: http://www.bostonherald.com/sports/basketball/celtics/view/20221020lee_helps_coach_cope/srvc=sports&position=also

Sam,
Thanks for the link.
Once again (well, it's 127th but who counts...) I have only 3 words on this topic: blessing in disguise.

Even if CL continues doing the same level of defense as he showed so far and forget his offense, I suspect Danny, twice a week, waltzing with Doc (cue J. Strauss Jr in): we've- got- defense-at-two, we've-got-defense-at-two....

AK