Kevin Garnett Injury: Celtics Have Survived This Before

As the Boston Celtics await word on how long the calf injury Kevin Garnett suffered Wednesday night in Detroit will keep the veteran forward out, it bears noting that Garnett has missed quite a few games during his three-plus season in Kelly green. Garnett has sat out a combined 49 regular season games in three seasons, and missed 25 games toward the end of the 2008-09 season. He also missed the postseason that year, and as a result it was the only season of Garnett's tenure in which Boston didn't earn a trip to the NBA Finals.

A couple of years back when we lost Garnett (even though we didn't know we had lost him for the year yet) the rest of the team stepped up and played very well down the stretch. Don't forget we were up three games to two on the Magic that year. In addition, the team essentially took last winter off before rallying together for a run to the Finals.

The Celtics went 18-7 without Garnett in the regular season in 2008-09, and won seven playoff games (four against the Bulls, three against the eventual Eastern champion Magic). Boston also appears to have a deeper frontcourt these days, with Shaquille O'Neal playing effectively as Jermaine O'Neal and Kendrick Perkins recover from injury. Glen Davis has become a better, or at least more consistent, player since 2009 as well.