BOSTON -- When is a bone bruise good news? When the other possibility was thought to be a meniscus tear.
After suffering a right knee injury on Friday night against the New York Knicks, Jermaine ONeal underwent an MRI on Saturday which revealed a bone bruise. It was a relief for the big man who already missed two games this season with a sore left knee and has battled knee injuries over his career.
I was running down in the second half the other night and stopped and my leg slipped, so my knee buckled a little bit so I had a little bit of a pinch, ONeal said following the Celtics 98-80 win over the Memphis Grizzlies. That was something that was a little bit of a concern because I woke up the next day -- well actually it started to swell a little after the game but then the next day it was pretty painful so they wanted to get a picture of it. The biggest thing for was it not being a meniscus tear. That was kind of the Dooms Day thing for me. When I got the call that it was a bone bruise, I could play through that. The meniscus tears are the ones that are tough to play through.
ONeal did not participate in practice on Saturday. He returned to the court on Sunday and posted four points and seven rebounds against the Grizzlies. While he felt the same amount of pain two days later, he thanked the Celtics staff for helping him with what he called around-the-clock therapy.
I was pretty pleased with that because we were a little nervous that it was something else, he said. Were never going to be healthy. Things are going to come up and youve just got to come out and give what you can give. Thats what I try to do.