BOSTON — Celtics coach Brad Stevens said before Tuesday night’s game against the Oklahoma City Thunder that he does not know when Kyrie Irving will be cleared to return.
The coach added, however, that he has not begun the process of considering playing the rest of the season without his franchise player.
Stevens confirmed reports from earlier in the day that Irving will seek a second opinion [...]
BOSTON — Celtics coach Brad Stevens said before Tuesday night’s game against the Oklahoma City Thunder that he does not know when Kyrie Irving will be cleared to return.
The coach added, however, that he has not begun the process of considering playing the rest of the season without his franchise player.
Stevens confirmed reports from earlier in the day that Irving will seek a second opinion to determine the best course of action for the persistent pain in his surgically repaired left knee. If Irving determines that surgery is necessary, he would likely miss the rest of the regular season and playoffs.
“From everything I was told last he will probably not be on the trip,” Stevens said of the four-game West Coast swing beginning Friday night in Portland. “So, still the same thing that we’ve been talking about. That knee has been sore. But he has worked really hard to manage it throughout the entire season. He’s had some pretty good days recently. I am encouraged by it in the big picture.”
Stevens said before the game it is “smart of him” to seek the second opinion, but added that he had not talked with Irving or Celtics president of basketball operations Danny Ainge since that decision was made.
Tuesday night was the fourth straight game Irving missed since his night was cut short when the knee flared up at halftime against the Indiana Pacers on March 11. He did travel with the team on the two-game weekend trip — with the anticipation he could be available for Sunday’s game in New Orleans — but was scratched from that one and ruled out of Tuesday’s game on Monday afternoon.
“Just continued soreness is what’s made the decision not to play tonight, and made the decision not to go on the trip, and seek outside counsel,” Stevens said. “It’s not new pain, by any means. It’s not anything new. It’s continued soreness.”
The coach said this is not a case of simply preserving Irving for the playoffs and left open the possibility Irving could join the team during the trip if the knee felt pain-free.
“He’s out because of knee soreness,” he said. “Not because we’re choosing to rest him. That’s the bottom line. We’ve talked about it. We want him to feel 110 percent. He wants to feel 110 percent.
“Obviously, we’re fortunate that we created cushion early on in the year as far as playoffs and everything else. But this is not one of those situations where we are choosing to rest somebody. He’s out because he’s got a sore knee.”
Stevens added that he is not at the point where he is considering a playoff run without Irving.
“I don’t really think about it until I’m told something like that,” he said. “If he doesn’t go on the trip — and we know he’s going to be gone for four games — then we have to prepare for those four games.
“We’ve played a lot of games without a lot of players this year. It’s been quite a challenge in that regard. Probably not more challenging than the last couple [of weeks], especially coming off how [well] we played right out of the [All-Star] break.”
Brown update
There was better news on the Jaylen Brown front Tuesday.
Brown, who is in the NBA’s concussion protocol, shot on the Garden floor about 2½ hours before the game and could fly out with the team to Portland when the Celtics are scheduled to leave on Wednesday.
Brown was seen in the locker room prior to Tuesday’s game for the first time since suffering a scary fall on a dunk two weeks ago in Minnesota.
“Jaylen has gone through the continued progression and is going in the right direction,” Stevens said. “He will not play [Tuesday]. And we’ll see from there.”
Stevens said he and his staff would look into potential lineup tinkering if the team continues to struggle without Irving.
“When we were playing our very best,” Stevens said, “which, I think, was right after the All-Star break when we were playing really well, I thought we had a great balance between starters and bench. We may need to tweak some things to get back to that even in the near term.”