Celtics coach Brad Stevens said that it's "very unlikely" Avery Bradley will return during Boston's first-round series against Atlanta. Bradley suffered a sprained hamstring in the fourth quarter of Game 1 of the series.
Celtics’ Avery Bradley is ‘very unlikely’ to play rest of series against Hawks
Sounds like the Celtics will be without their starting shooting guard for a while.
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Bradley contested a shot with seven minutes to go in the final quarter and when he landed, he started limping. Non-contact injuries are usually serious, so the Celtics quickly called a time out. Once they did, Bradley laid on the ground in obvious pain and had to be helped off the court and into the locker room. It was announced he would not return and the prognosis was that he had suffered a sprained hamstring.
After the game, Stevens mentioned that Bradley had heard a pop in his hamstring but didn’t provide any more details. On Sunday he said that the injury is serious enough that he will likely miss the rest of the series, which is a huge blow for Boston’s chances of advancing to the second round.
“The biggest challenge is that we’re playing small anyways,” Stevens said. “You might have to go even deeper into that.”
Bradley is one of the best perimeter defenders in the league and he's the Celtics' No. 2 scorer. He averaged 15 points, three rebounds, two assists and over a steal a game and started 72 games for Boston in the regular season. Evan Turner and Marcus Smart should see their minutes climb going forward.
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