Despite last night’s loss to the Houston Rockets, 93-87, the Boston Celtics are only 2.5 games out of the Eastern Conference Playoff race. Pretty incredible considering our record is 16-29 and we are in a major rebuild year.
One of the guys who has been at the center of the rebuild has been Kelly Olynyk. Olynyk has averaged 11.1 points, 5.4 rebounds, 1.7 assists and 1 steal over 24.5 minutes per game. And we really missed him in the first half last night, when Donatas Motiejunas went off against us for 26 points and 12 rebounds.
Jan 8, 2015; New York, NY, USA; Houston Rockets forward Donatas Motiejunas (20) gestures after scoring during the third quarter against the New York Knicks at Madison Square Garden. Houston Rockets won 120-96. Mandatory Credit: Anthony Gruppuso-USA TODAY Sports
The bad part, is that we might not be seeing Olynyk for awhile. The second-year big man suffered a sprained right ankle in Portland last Thursday, and we haven’t seen him since. He sat out the remainder of the team’s road trip this past week, but after speaking with the media on practice Thursday, it appears he won’t be back in action for the foreseeable future –
“It’s tough with something like an ankle, everyone is different,” Olynyk said. “It could be a week, it could be three weeks, it could be a month. You never know. I’m just trying to get better and evaluate it each day and take the next step whenever it’s deemed necessary.”
Jan 22, 2015; Portland, OR, USA; Portland Trail Blazers guard C.J. McCollum (3) knocks the ball away from Boston Celtics center Kelly Olynyk (41) during the fourth quarter of the game at the Moda Center at the Rose Quarter. Mandatory Credit: Steve Dykes-USA TODAY Sports
What would really stink is if the big man misses the upcoming Rising Stars challenge. In the meantime, Olynyk has focused on rest and rehabilitation to recover from the ailment. Olynyk missed 10 games in his rookie season with a sprain on the same ankle and is determined to not let the injury linger past his return. This isn’t Greg Oden type problems, so I think injury problems won’t be too part of Olynyk’s future with the Celtics. Olynyk went on to say –
“ plenty of stuff . You’d probably have to talk to Ed , they can tell you better. It’s almost treatment overload, just trying to do whatever you can to keep that swelling down, get the pain out of there and try to get it moving as best we can.”
In Olynyk’s absence, Coach Stevens has implemented a starting lineup where power forward Brandon Bass replaces Tyler Zeller. What exactly is the benefit of starting a pair of power forwards in Bass and Sully? It’s all about depth according to Stevens-
“We have a lot less flexibility with Kelly out, because he can play with just about anybody coming off of the bench. If you brought Sully, Tyler (Zeller) or Bass off the bench, Kelly’s skill set enables him to play with those guys. We decided to start Bass before the Portland game because we decided it would be best for our match-ups, and they didn’t start the lineup we thought. But he’s a real good pro, and he’ll be effective starting or coming off the bench.”
For some reason, Sullinger actually fits better at the center position for us. We saw this last year, when he was our starting center for the whole season. If Sully and the crew can hold down the fort for the next few weeks, Olynyk’s eventual return could just be enough to bump the Celtics up to the 8th seed in the East.
We miss you Kelly! Here is a cool mixtape of Olynyk’s unusual and impressive skill set he has had at the PF/C position this year in the 2014-2015 season –