Rookies ready to play
Allan Ray’s telephone rang late Wednesday night, and it turned out that he was thrilled it did.
Tony Allen called the Celtics rookie on his way home from the hospital where he had received the devastating news that he had torn the ACL and MCL in his left knee that night against Indiana and would be lost for the rest of the season.
Allen didn’t call Ray for sympathy.
“This is your chance,” Allen told Ray. “You can go out there and show everybody what you’ve got and show everybody that you belong. Play every game like it’s your last game because you never know what can happen — nothing’s guaranteed.”
No one knows more than Allen that there are no guarantees in the NBA. The third-year swingman was playing the best ball of his career in place of the injured Paul Pierce, but his season ended Wednesday night. Celtics physician Dr. Brian McKeon will repair Allen’s torn tendons today at New England Baptist Hospital.
Ray, a little-used rookie, will play more with Allen out. Ray couldn’t believe Allen took the time to call him.
“That’s probably the last thing on his mind,” Ray said, “but for him to call me and tell what he told me was definitely a big motivation for me.”
Brian Scalabrine sprained his right MCL and bruised his right meniscus Wednesday so another rookie, Leon Powe, will get to play more. Powe knows exactly what Allen will have to go through in order to make it back because he’s undergone surgery to repair his left ACL twice.
“It just takes a tough-minded person to go through that,” Powe said. “Tony’s tough, and he’s going to get through it.”
Powe underwent ACL surgery on his left knee the summer after his junior year in high school and played with a brace his senior year of high school and his freshman year at California. The surgery wasn’t totally successful so Powe underwent a bone graft after his freshman year, and then further ACL surgery a few months later. He red-shirted a year before playing last season for Cal.
“I hated the rehab,” Powe said, “because it seemed so slow. It was working, but it was frustrating and nerve-wracking.”
While others were running, jumping and lifting weights in the gym, Powe was limited for awhile to stretching his knee with an exercise band to strengthen the other muscles in his leg.
Powe’s knee feels fine now. It’s as strong as ever, but he thinks he may have lost an inch or two from his vertical leap. He continues to work on it.
“I hate to see people go down with knee injuries,” Powe said. “I want to earn my spot, but stuff happens. You can’t control that.”
A lot of the Celtics visited Allen Thursday to help him celebrate his 25th birthday.
“We sang ‘Happy Birthday,’ ” Gerald Green said. “I told him to keep his head up, we’re going to miss you.”
The Celtics were down to nine healthy players last night. Also out were Pierce (left foot stress reaction) Delonte West (sore back), Wally Szczerbiak (sore knee and ankles) and Theo Ratliff (back surgery). Kendrick Perkins started, but admitted his foot is still sore some days.
“Right now everybody thinks we’re the underdog,” Green said. “Right now everybody thinks we’re capable of winning because we don’t have our guys. I think with the guys we have now if we play team basketball I think we should be able to win these games.”
Celtics coach Doc Rivers had to fill in during practice on Thursday so the Celtics could work five on five.
“He was 1 for 30,” Green said. “He said that he could have dunked, but he was lying. Age would have gotten into him. If he would have dunked, he wouldn’t be here right now. He would have been with Ed (Lacerte, trainer) all year.”
West and Szczerbiak are the closest to returning, but neither of them is expected to play tonight in Detroit. Rivers doubted either would play Monday at Atlanta either.
“There’s no cavalry,” Rivers said.
Scalabrine will be re-evaluated Wednesday to see if he’ll be able to play Friday at home against Sacramento. Scalabrine hurt his knee colliding with Green Wednesday. He missed the first three games of the season with a separated shoulder due to another collision with Green.
“You have to go through that,” Scalabrine said. “At one time, I was young and I was running into guys, too.”
Losing speed isn’t a concern for the slow-footed Scalabrine.
“That’s what I always tell people,” Scalabrine said. “That’s why I’m going to have a long career in the NBA, I’m not going to lose a step or anything.”