All things considered, the Celtics should be in pretty good shape health-wise heading into Game 1 of the NBA Finals on Thursday.
With Jayson Tatum recovered from the stinger he suffered in Game 3 in the Eastern Conference Finals, the only Celtics regulars who were on the injury report going into Game 7 were Marcus Smart and Robert Williams.
Smart suffered a right ankle sprain during Game 3 and missed Game 4. He was limited to 23 minutes in Game 5, but then topped 40 minutes in both Game 6 and Game 7.
Speaking to the media on Tuesday, coach Ime Udoka said there's no concerns about Smart going into the Finals.
"Marcus, there's no concern about that," Udoka said. "The swelling is what it is, and that'll dissipate as time goes by. And the pain tolerance thing, he can obviously play through a lot, and he did that and played heavy minutes."
Williams, meanwhile, has been playing through left knee soreness resulting from surgery on a torn meniscus in late March. He has missed seven games total this postseason, but did play six of seven against Miami. He played 26 minutes in Games 5 and 6, but then was limited to 14 in Game 7 and appeared to be moving very gingerly at times.
Udoka said he thinks the additional time off between series and having two days between most Finals games should help Williams.
"Rob's all right," Udoka said. "He's good. He felt good. His minutes were low. He only played 14 in that game. We tried to keep him in the lower portion if we could. Obviously that's beneficial for him going forward, but the days off as well. So he should feel better in general. Getting looked at today, and he'll continue to get his treatment and rehab in order to get swelling down and some of the pain, and some of the mobility back.
"It's gonna be an ongoing thing like I mentioned. He's day-to-day pretty much throughout the playoffs. Should feel better with time in between, especially with these two days off in between games as opposed to playing every other day. I think going back to the Milwaukee series, we had played 17 straight, every other day. So that's gonna take a toll on you coming off surgery. We keep his minutes down and get him back to feeling better, obviously that'll benefit us going forward."
The Warriors, meanwhile, have three rotational players all working back from injury. Coach Steve Kerr said on Monday that Otto Porter Jr. (foot), Gary Payton II (elbow) and Andre Iguodala (neck) all participated in practice, but didn't scrimmage.
Porter missed the last two games of the Western Conference Finals, Payton has been out since Game 3 of the second round, and Iguodala has been out since Game 5 of the first round.
