Celtics’ Marcus Smart suffers from strained calf against the Lakers, but a close-up gives a potentially darker picture

The Boston Celtics dropped a 96-95 crush to the Los Angeles Lakers on Saturday after failing to convert potential back-to-back winning shots at the end of the game, but loss is the least of their concerns as Marcus Smart has fell in the fourth trimester with a frightening injury to the left calf area.

The Celtics quickly announced that Smart was suffering from a strained calf, but Boston fans will collectively hold their breath until an MRI can confirm that initial diagnosis. Everyone remembers the vivid revival of Kevin Durant’s infamous Achilles tear in the 2019 NBA Finals, where you could see the tendon come out like the day, and Smart’s injury was eerily similar.

Here is the enlarged view of Smart’s injury:

Here is the enlarged view:

For a worrying comparison, here’s what Durant’s injury looked like:

The Celtics likely administered a Thompson test right away, which is usually an early and accurate way to determine if an Achilles is ruptured. But again, this close-up replay of Smart’s calf area shot could raise fears of the worst until an MRI can give a definitive diagnosis.

Even though Smart’s injury is a calf strain, don’t be fooled by the harmless designation of “strain”. It can be a serious injury. Durant’s initial injury in the 2019 playoffs, suffered in Game 5 of the second round against Houston, was also calf strain, which kept him from staying for a month. If it hadn’t been for the final when he returned, Durant would likely have been out for more than six weeks.

Dr Alan Beyer, orthopedic surgeon and executive medical director of the Hoag Orthopedic Institute in Southern California, spoke with CBS Sports throughout Durant’s calf tension recovery for a month in 2019, and he warned on several occasions that a calf strain, which in reality is a tear, can easily become a precursor of a complete Achilles rupture, which unfortunately became the case with Durant upon his return, perhaps too soon.

Either way, there’s a good chance that Smart will be away for quite a while. But anything is better than a broken Achilles. It looked bad, but the Celtics will continue to hope that the original report of a calf strain is correct.