CELTICS’ GARNETT ‘SHUT DOWN’ UNTIL THE PLAYOFFS

Kevin Garnett has struggled to stay in the Boston Celtics lineup since he injured his right knee on February 19^th against the Utah Jazz in Salt Lake City.  The locker room leader of the defending NBA champs has missed 15 of the last 19 games—during which the Celtics have slipped to third place in the Eastern Conference.  With the playoffs right around the corner the team has decided that ‘enough is enough’ and has indicated that Garnett will miss most—if not all—of the team’s remaining regular season games.

After watching Garnett hobble through yet another practice, head coach Doc Rivers said that the Celtics would be ‘shutting down’ their superstar forward at least for the time being.  His comments did leave the door open to Garnett returning for the final few regular season games:

"After watching him move today, we're just going to shut him down. It probably won't be for the year. He'll probably play by the end, last couple of games or last three games. It's just not progressing the way we anticipated it would progress. We assumed we were going to practice him, and right now, we're not even going to do that. We're going to shut him down until the soreness goes away and the swelling goes away and then we bring him back up."

"We're just going to shut him down until we feel like he's ready. It's nothing structural. It's the same thing that it's been. It's just not reacting the same way we thought it would react. He didn't react to the games we thought he would and he's clearly not reacting to practice the way we thought he would."

Garnett has had his knee examined and MRI tests have revealed no structural damage.  The ‘official’ description of his injury at this point is ‘sore knee’, so the team is hoping that some rest will allow Garnett to be back in time to help contribute to their NBA title defense once the playoffs begin.

The Celtics will play their next four games at home against Charlotte, Atlanta, New Jersey and Miami before they hit the road for a pair of games.  They’ll head to Cleveland for a battle against the Eastern Conference leading Cavs, and then travel to Philadelphia to play the 76ers.  They’ll conclude the regular season at home against the Washington Wizards.