On April 28, Ray Allen said he would have surgery following the conclusion of the Celtics playoff run for the bone spurs in his right ankle. At the time, Allen went as far to say that he would get the surgery “tomorrow” if it were not for the playoffs starting. But before Game 4 Sunday night, Allen rescinded his statements, instead hinting that the joints in his ankle causing the pain could heal the ailment naturally rendering surgery unnecessary.
“I know I said [I needed surgery] a couple weeks ago,” Allen said. “I believe that just from pictures. But based on how I feel now, and where my body is, I'll revisit getting X-Rays and a MRI when [the season] is over with and make an assessment then. If I continue this track I'm on, [I'm] getting better, then I don't need to have surgery, if it's not necessary.”
Allen returned to the lineup for the first time since April 10 during Game 3 Friday night. He scored 13 points off the bench in 36 minutes of action in the Celtics 90-84 overtime victory. Allen said he was in significant pain Saturday, but also came to the conclusion he may not need surgery over the course of the weekend.
“I thought about [forgoing surgery] maybe [Saturday] and maybe a bit [Friday],” he said. “If the joint shows different things based on how I feel when I'm playing and moving around, I don't think there is a need for it. Before it was to excruciating, I felt like that was the only option. It felt like even as the series was starting I wasn't going to be able to play.”
For complete coverage from the team of Paul Flannery, Mike Petraglia, Ryan Hadfield and Ben Rohrbach, visit the Celtics team page at weei.com/celtics [1] and the Green Street [2] blog.
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