Marcus Smart May Miss Rest of Season with Thumb Injury, Says Brad Stevens

Boston Celtics head coach Brad Stevens suggested guard Marcus Smart may miss the rest of the 2017-18 campaign because of his right thumb injury.

According to Shams Charania of Yahoo Sports, Smart's injury was diagnosed as a torn tendon, although he will have second opinions.

Stevens discussed the situation while appearing on Boston sports radio 98.5 FM's Zolak & Bertrand show, via Joe Wolfond of theScore:

"Marcus is going to seek a second opinion, confer with everybody that he's talked to, and make the right decision from there that everybody's comfortable with.

"So he's got to figure out what his next steps are. He told me today that he's going to take a couple of days, see what it feels like early next week, get all of the different doctors' opinions, sit down early next week, and weigh his options. There could be a slight chance that he's back sooner rather than later, but I'd say that it's not going to be any time too soon, and there's a chance that he would not be back."

Smart is far from the only injury the Celtics are dealing with, as the team announced Jaylen Brown (concussion), Al Horford (illness), Kyrie Irving (left knee soreness) and Daniel Theis (left knee meniscal tear) will all miss Wednesday's game against the Washington Wizards.

That doesn't even include Gordon Hayward, who has been out since the season opener with his fracture ankle.

Smart isn't a dominant offensive player and is shooting just 36.7 percent from the field and 30.1 percent from three-point range, but he is a important perimeter defender in Boston's rotation who frequently guards the opposition's best wing scorer in critical moments.

According to NBA.com, opponents shoot 3.9 percent worse than their overall averages and 5.6 percent worse from three-point range when Smart is guarding them this season.

At this point, the Celtics are treading water with so many ailments and find themselves four games behind the Toronto Raptors in the race for the Eastern Conference's No. 1 seed. Fortunately for Boston, it is a comfortable 6.5 games ahead of the third-seeded Indiana Pacers, so there is still breathing room to ensure home-court advantage in the first two rounds of the playoffs.

It will be without a critical piece once it gets there, though, if Smart is unable to return to the court.