Avery Bradley expects to play tonight despite injury in Game Two

When you play a team accused of using MMA on the court, you're going to get banged up.


And banged up is exactly how you could describe any of several players on both teams in the Washington Wizards - Boston Celtics second-round matchup, including Avery Bradley, who will reportedly play tonight in Game Three of the series. The injury, a hip pointer - basically, a deep tissue bruise to a bunch of muscle and tendon crucial for all kinds of movement - is not serious, but very, very painful. Typically, such injuries are not lasting damage, per se, but bruising, cramping and irritation resulting from a hard hit. And the last two games with the Wizards have been full of them, and look to continue to evoke the late Eighties and early Nineties physical play extinguished after the Malice at the Palace.


So far, it's been a treat for those of us reminiscent of that era - especially given nobody has missed significant time as a result - but you have to think maybe the league clamps down a bit on officiating for this game after all the carnage so far. Broken teeth, and nearly broken noses and ankles (no metaphor there, either) have probably pushed the envelope as far as it can go, and we're lucky pretty much all players are still in action, including Avery, who took a hard hit towards the end of the second quarter. Said Bradley, (per MassLive's Jay King):

"[I'm] A little sore, but I'm going to get some treatment. I'll be fine...I had to get some shots and stuff...Ice, just try to keep moving, and wrapping it up so I could go out there and try to play."

Let's hope he's mostly recovered by then, because containing John Wall - as much as can be done, anyhow - will mostly fall to the likes of Bradley and Marcus Smart, and any situation where Boston is in position to sweep the Wizards will require some degree of both of these two being able to cover Wall for significant stretches tonight. All said and done, we're really, really fortunate to be in such a position at all, given the roller coaster of events of the past two weeks.


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