Kemba Walker injury: The Celtics want to make sure he returns “forever”

December 29, 2020 | 18h29

Kemba Walker does not yet have a timetable for returning to the Celtics roster as he recovers from a stem cell injection in his left knee.

Walker received experimental treatment in early October. Before the season, he told reporters that the injection “definitely calmed my knee a lot.”

Brad Stevens, asked about Walker’s progress ahead of Boston’s game against the Indiana Pacers on Tuesday, said the team’s goal is to keep Walker available in the long term, rather than just getting him back as quickly as possible.

“No updates I received, except that it is progressing,” said Stevens. “I think we will have a better idea or a general update next week at some point – as we thought, around the turn of the new year. He won’t be back anytime soon. We certainly hope to get it back as soon as possible, but we want to make sure that when we do it, it will be forever. This is the most critical from our point of view. “

Celtics entries – in a tiny sample size – have been discarded this season. Opponents overcame the combination of Jaylen Brown, Jayson Tatum, Marcus Smart, Daniel Theis and Tristan Thompson by more than 26 points, according to Cleaning the Glass.

The Celtics can improve in many ways before Walker returns, but bringing him back can make a big difference.

“You can see how we miss him,” said Stevens. “It’s funny, when we come back and put together clips of things that we don’t cover or would like to do differently, he’s in them all. We just have to find a way to be the best version of ourselves until he comes back. This starts off being a little better defensively and then hitting the best we can. “

Earlier this month, Walker said it would take a while to return from the injury.

“There’s no rush,” said Walker. “There is no rush in my end. I’ll be back when I need to come back and when I’m feeling good to play. Then that’s it. That is, I really wasn’t a guy who got hurt over the course of my career. So this sucks, but I also love the game of basketball and I want to play at a high level in front of the fans who come to watch that game. So, I want to be at my best.

“Last time in the playoffs, I wasn’t at my best, and that sucked. I do not want to be like that anymore. “