BOSTON – Days off this time of year in the NBA are rare, but this is not what Jared Sullinger had in mind.
The 6-foot-9 forward spent Monday night in the hospital with what doctors determined was a skin infection.
“I had discomfort,” Sullinger said. “And the infection turned into sickness.”
While Sullinger wasn’t quite at full strength Wednesday night, the 6-foot-9 forward did his part in contributing to Boston’s 116-96 blowout win over Memphis.
Sullinger, who was unable to practice on Monday and Tuesday because of the infection, had 12 points, five rebounds and three steals in 21 minutes of court time.
It wasn’t determined until shortly before tip-off that Sullinger would even suit up.
“Rough” was how Sullinger described the last couple of days.
Boston Celtics
He added, “But at the same time we have a great medical staff. They did a great job of getting me back healthy.”
But there was nothing they could do to compensate for the lost practice days which Sullinger acknowledged did impact his conditioning on Wednesday.
That still didn’t prevent him from going coast-to-coast for a lay-up in the first half.
“I didn’t think I was going to get that,” Sullinger said. “That’s when I realized how fatigued I was.”
The infection had cleared up enough to where Sullinger was given the green light to rejoin his teammates, but the treatment of the infection still had to be managed throughout Wednesday’s game.
Sullinger said the plan was to re-dress it whenever he was off the floor, but it managed to hold up for the entire first half of the game.
“But the second half, it fell off,” said Sullinger who added that the initial symptoms of the infection first hit him following Boston’s loss at Cleveland last week. “Me and Ed (Lacerte, the Celtics team trainer) went back and re-dressed it.”
Sullinger said that he feels better and that to his knowledge, the skin infection is not contagious.
“If I am, that would be a great, great reason for y’all not to talk to me,” quipped Sullinger.
And it might lead to players not guarding you as tight, right?
Uh ... not so much!
“They (Memphis) sure didn’t act like it how they guarded me today,” said Sullinger who was 5-for-11 from the field.