Celtics Journal: Team taking cautious approach with ailing players

BOSTON — Al Horford said the competitor in him wanted to be out on the parquet for his injury-depleted Celtics team on Monday night at TD Garden against Anthony Davis and the New Orleans Pelicans.

The pragmatic part of him knew, however, that pushing his troublesome left knee for one night in December wasn’t worth the risk if it could keep him on the bench for a significant stretch of the upcoming season. [...]

BOSTON — Al Horford said the competitor in him wanted to be out on the parquet for his injury-depleted Celtics team on Monday night at TD Garden against Anthony Davis and the New Orleans Pelicans.

The pragmatic part of him knew, however, that pushing his troublesome left knee for one night in December wasn’t worth the risk if it could keep him on the bench for a significant stretch of the upcoming season.

“I think it’s what’s best for our group, for our team, long term,” said Horford before missing his second straight game with patella tendinitis. “I don’t want to have to keep dealing with this, and the question marks, game after game. I just have to listen to what the training staff and the doctors are telling me. I have to buy into that plan.”

While Celtics coach Brad Stevens said the team “might go slow” with Horford when it comes to the discomfort he’s been dealing with off and on for nearly a month, Horford talked about the injury more in terms of days than weeks.

“Moved a little bit (pregame),” Horford said. “Still not where I need to be. Right away, I could tell. But it is much better than two days ago.

“Hopefully, a couple of more days and we can put this behind us.”

Horford said strength work around the knee and treatments, along with some rest, are the steps he’s taking to try to prevent a recurrence of the injury.

“The strength work and the training is the bulk of it,” he said. “We’ve been going two or three times a day with it to speed up the process.”

Horford was part of long list of Celtics out of action on Monday night — including 60 percent of an All-Star team with Kyrie Irving out with right shoulder stiffness and Gordon Hayward missing due to illness. Aron Baynes was also out with a sprained left ankle and Guerschon Yabusele was out with a right ankle sprain.

Stevens said Irving, who took a shot to the shoulder late in Thursday night’s victory against the New York Knicks but was not listed on the injury report for Saturday’s 56-point win in Chicago, is day-to-day.

“Kyrie, I think, is going to be fine long-term,” Stevens said. “He felt just a little bit of stiffness (on Monday).”

Stevens said Baynes is progressing well on his ankle injury, but not to the point where he could suit up on Monday. Yabusele, who suffered what at first glance appeared to be a serious ankle injury in Chicago, was in the locker room moving around without a walking boot before Monday’s game.

“Not even close to being able to play,” Stevens said of Yabusele, adding that he avoided a high ankle sprain that could keep him out months. “The window is going to be at least a few weeks.”

Adding to the family

There were some eyebrows raised on Thursday when rookie Robert Williams was assigned to the Maine Red Claws of the G-League and then scratched late to an “excused team absence.”

Given the rookie’s history of tardiness, and other absent-minded behavior, it was fair to wonder if Williams had gotten himself into some type of adventure during the two-hour trip to Portland.

It turns out the 21-year-old was beginning more of a lifelong adventure with the birth of his first daughter that day.

“I got to Maine in the morning when we had shoot-around,” he said. “I went to the shoot-around. Then I left, got some food, and as I was getting some food (the expecting mother) texted me. So I had to turn around and drive right back here.”

Williams was recalled from Maine on Monday, along with P.J. Dozier on a two-way contract, with the Celtics down to 10 players in uniform.

“Just got to keep doing the same job we’ve been doing,” Williams said of a potential expanded role for himself as long as Baynes and Horford are out, “executing what our coaches want us to execute. Obviously, a lot of new guys have to step up.”

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Pelicans coach Alvin Gentry on the potential “distraction” of recurring trade rumors surrounding Davis: “That’s a question you’d have to ask him. But right now he’s under contract for us. We’re trying to worry about winning games. And that’s it. That’s going to take care of itself when the time comes. So it’s not a distraction at all.”