Not Again: Delonte West Injures Right Hand At Practice, X-Rays Pending

Posted by Brian Robb on Feb 15, 2011 1646517 commentshttp%3A%2F%2Fcelticshub.com%2F2011%2F02%2F15%2Fnot-again-delonte-west-injures-right-hand-at-practice-x-rays-pending%2FNot+Again%3A+Delonte+West+Injures+Right+Hand+At+Practice%2C+X-Rays+Pending2011-02-15+19%3A00%3A20Brian+Robbhttp%3A%2F%2Fcelticshub.com%2F%3Fp%3D16465

Just when you thought it couldn’t get any worse for the C’s injury situation, it does. On the day before his scheduled return to the Celtics lineup, Delonte West injured his right hand/fingers in practice today. Though he did not see it specifically in practice, C’s spokesman described the injury occuring while Delonte West was on defense and he took a hard hit on the hand/fingers while deflecting the ball.

Ed Lacerte was immediately called and West left the practice floor and was taken for x-rays. We will pass along any further information on West’s condition as it comes in along with Doc Rivers’ quotes on the situation. For now though, you can expect for West to sit out for at least tomorrow’s game against the Nets.

Here’s Doc on the situation:

Delonte practiced, but didn’t get through practice. He got hit on the hand, so we’ll see tomorrow. I was worried about it yesterday and it happened. so we’ll see about him playing tomorrow. I’m sure we’ll do another x-ray to make sure nothing happened…. he went through most of practice, but then did it.

(On the bad luck with the injury occurring) “Look you gotta play, if somebody’s going to hit you, they’re going to hit you. it’s going to happen. it’s basketball.”

There’s good news, bad news here obviously, with the bad news being the injury obviously but the good news that the injury didn’t appear to be specifically to West’s wrist where he is obviously the most ginger right now.

It’s another setback, which the team doesn’t need right now, but for now we just have to wait on the x-rays. We obviously should know tomorrow during the pregame.

Other notes from practice, after the jump

* Paul Pierce did not practice as expected. Shaq attended practice but did not particpate.

Second half goals were a common theme, with KG, Rondo and Doc touching on the question. Here’s a few interesting quotes:

Doc: Hopefully this year we’ll be healthy, last year we were not. Last year, they were different injuries, surgical injuries last year, is what I would call them. Even though back on the floor, they were not ready to play basketball. at least not competitive playoff basketball. we understood that. This year’s different. Guys coming back, minus JO, not a lot of surgical guys, just injuries that guys come back from every day.

Rondo on getting through injuries in 1st half: “We have a lot of great talent. Some of our main guys have been out. Myself, KG, Shaq, Perk. The guys that are the glue of the team though are pretty good talent. Von and Nate are stepping up and Danny did a good job of getting god players this summer. Guys are stepping up.”

Rondo on Playing for Doc during his career:

“I’ve only played for one coach. I’m very fortunate to play for him. I’ve heard a lot of things around the league about other coaches so I personally don’t take him for granted.”

“He’s a unique coach. I think he’s a great players coach. He obviously played the game so know a lot about it and can relate to you better than coaches who didn’t. I’m just glad he’s on our side.”

“He’s strict on young guys. Every coach in the league pretty much is. You have to break them down [young guys], keep them humble when they come in, since they have a big ego and probably were the man on their team in college.”

“For me, it was a tough transition, I just had to stay positive and fight through adversity. It made me mentally tougher and I’m able to help young guys now as well, like Avery or Luke, since I’ve been through that. I’m still young, I consider myself a young guy since it’s my fifth year.”

That’s all for now, stay tuned for the latest on West later today……