Garnett’s Knee Getting Better

By KC Downey in Celtics, Featured ⋅ October 1, 2009 at 7:10am ⋅ Post a comment

After practice Wednesday, Kevin Garnett addressed the media, answering specific questions about his knee. As you may remember, KG missed much of the second half last season and the entire playoffs due to bone spurs in his knee.

Without Garnett, the Celtics limped through the first round against the Bulls before getting knocked out in Game 7 of the second round against the Magic. With a healthy Garnett, many felt (including yours truly) the Celtics could take on and defeat the might Cavs (just like Orlando did) and give the Lakers a run for their money in the NBA Finals.

The following is a portion of the interview, as seen on Boston.com:

“It’s just certain, not necessarily that I can’t do or whatever, just from power and strength and not having the options to play, is my only difficulty. You see when I sprint I can’t get out and (makes the sound of a speeding car) like I really want to but each day I can honestly say I am getting better and better. 85 percent, 90 percent is pretty accurate. Probably most excited and most uplifting for me is on defense, where I am able to move laterally and recover.

“When a guy makes a strong move, I can respond to that and react to that as opposed to in the past I would have had some problems, I would have reached. For the most part I can move around laterally and defensively better than anything. Offense is just about mixing up schemes and getting people off balance, it will come. Like I said man, I said with a laugh or smiling face yesterday was that strengthening, conditioning of the leg, that’s what I am speaking on, not my whole body, is going to take patience on my part. I take it to the limit and I push a little bit past the limit until (trainer) Ed (Lacerte) gives me the daddy look like he wants to kill me or something.

“For the most part, it’s going positive man.”

About KC Downey

KC is the "head coach" of the Sports of Boston, LLC blog network. Follow him on Twitter: @kc_downey

Tags: Celtics, injury, Kevin Garnett

Discussion

3 comments for “Garnett’s Knee Getting Better”

Thanks, KC, for the long awaited update on KG, but I think I’m more confused than ever after those strange quotes. What is clear is that Garnett is not at full strength and is still rehabilitating. I would imagine that he’ll have reduced playing time for the next few months at least, and we’ll probably be seeing a lot of Rasheed Wallace – which is not exactly a thrilling prospect.

Can’t say I’m very confident when thinking about the lousy defense that Wallace plays. Could change the whole direction of the team, especially with his Jekyll and Hyde personality. We’ll see.

Posted by Ken | October 1, 2009, 7:32 am
Garnett’s Knee Getting Better: After practice Wednesday, Kevin Garnett addressed the media, answering specific .. http://bit.ly/uM5hf

Posted by Sports of Boston | October 1, 2009, 7:22 am
Yeah, Ken. I know it isn’t much, but at least Garnett mentions he’s 85-90% ready. I agree, they’ll definitely carry him along slowly, which means we’ll see more Rasheed Wallace and Big Baby. Forcing ‘Sheed into action early may be good for him, because it’ll force him to get used to his teammates.

If Garnett can never get healthy this season, you can kiss the Larry O’Brien Trophy goodbye, sadly.

Posted by KC | October 1, 2009, 4:08 pm