Danny Ainge says Avery Bradley will likely miss another week


Yesterday morning during his weekly spot on Toucher & Rich on 98.5 the Sports Hub Danny Ainge estimated that Avery Bradley was likely still a week away from returning to the Celtics' lineup:


Avery has now missed 4 straight games, and 8 of the last 9 from a strained achilles he suffered prior to a January 7th matchup with the New Orleans Pelicans - the Celtics are 5-4 in his absence. If Ainge's estimation is correct and Bradley misses another week, he would miss another back-to-back this weekend against Orlando/Milwaukee, a matchup with Detroit on Monday, and possibly another game against Toronto on Wednesday.

Bradley was sorely missed when the Celtics played Toronto last, as both DeMar DeRozan and Kyle Lowry had monster games. The Celtics currently trail the Raptors by a half game in the Eastern Conference standings, and with the Celtics dropping the first two matchups to Toronto should the C's lose to them again they would lose any tiebreaker in playoff seeding come April.

I would prefer the Celtics remain cautious and not rush Bradley back, and so far it seems that is the plan. They don't need this injury lingering throughout the rest of the season, but it would be great to see the Celtics and Raptors battle with both teams at full-strength.


Photo Credit - Boston.com/Associated Press

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