Kyrie Irving Left Boston’s Game Against The Clippers With A Right Knee Sprain

The Boston Celtics stood pat at the NBA trade deadline, opting to go into the stretch run with the roster the franchise has assembled over the years. It was a justifiable move, as the Celtics went into the trade deadline winners of nine of their last 10 games, finally looking like a team that should be able to compete for an Eastern Conference crown.

Things aren’t all good in Boston, though, as Celtics fans are holding their collective breaths following an injury to Kyrie Irving on Saturday night. Irving was playing defense during Boston’s game against the Los Angeles Clippers and came up a bit gimpy, running into a screen from Danilo Gallinari as he was trying to close out on an attempted three by Garrett Temple.

The team ultimately ruled that Irving would not return to the game, although it’s unclear if that was precautionary or a sign of what’s to come.

As Chris Mannix of Sports Illustrated pointed out, the well-documented knee issues that kept Irving out of the postseason last year involved his left knee, while this involved him tweaking something in his right knee. That, at the very least, lets Boston rule out that he re-aggravated something, but it’s still a really bad sign when someone as important to a team as Irving is to the Celtics goes down.