BOSTON — Jrue Holiday is over a month removed from suffering a rare mallet finger injury on his right pinky but he crossed a checkpoint on his road recovery. The veteran Celtics guard was not sporting a cast on his right pinky for the first time in over a month.
“See that? See that? It’s kinda ugly but yeah, it’s good,” Holiday said of his new brace. “I get to move my finger. It feels kinda weird. I haven’t moved it in like six weeks, that knuckle part. But it seems like it’s all right.”
Holiday has played for the past five weeks while wearing a cast on his right pinky, playing very good basketball despite the movement limitations. He’s averaging over 11 points per game during that stretch and has shot close to 40 percent from 3-point range in March and April, a number far above his season average.
Holiday now will have a smaller pinky brace as the postseason opens but it’s unclear how much longer the injury will impact him at all. However, Holiday’s confident that the shift won’t have any type of negative impact on his play.
“I still have to play in it, so hopefully the good shooting keeps happening,” Holiday said. “But I think it’s about adjusting, being as adaptable as possible. And I think luckily it was on my pinky finger where, if you’re a shooter, I think these three (other) fingers are the most important. But yeah, we’ll figure it out.”
Holiday has played his best basketball as a Celtic last postseason posting 13.2 points and 6.1 rebounds per game during Boston’s run to the championship. The team’s scoring onus on him may not be as heavy this year with Kristaps Porzingis healthier this time around but Holiday’s defensive impact could be critical with Jaylen Brown potentially impacted by a bone bruise in his knee.
With Holiday now down the road to a full recovery with his finger, the Celtics look to be in fine shape for when they host Game 1 on the TD Garden on Sunday.
