NBA Hoosiers (Sept. 17): Injury Bug Bites Romeo Langford Yet Again
Romeo Langford just can't stay healthy. After spending most of the past two weeks on the bench for the Boston Celtics, Langford got the call to come in midway through the first quarter of their Eastern Conference finals game with the Boston Celtics on Thursday night.
Langford lasted all of 81 seconds.
Celtics coach Brad Stevens subbed Langford into the game with 7:29 to go in the first quarter, which was something of a surprise because the rookie from Indiana didn't play at all in Game 1 and only played seven minutes total in Boston's second-round series against Toronto.
But Langford but the 14th overall pick exited just 81 seconds later with a groin injury while trying to guard Miami's Jimmy Butler on a drive to the basket. The Celtics, who blew a double-digit second half lead for the second game in a row and lost 106-101, later announced that Langford was out with a right adductor strain.
Langford did not appear in Game 1 versus Miami and has played sparingly with the Celtics thus far in the postseason. He's only scored 10 points total during the first three rounds.
Stevens turned to him looking to get a spark defensively, but it didn't last long. Langford has been fighting the injury bug since he got to Orlando. He's also got a torn ligament in his right wrist that will require postseason surgery.
He also couldn't finish his lone season at Indiana because of injuries. He missed the Hoosiers' NIT Tournament run because of a thumb injury that required surgery in the offseason.
That was just one of many frustrations on the night for the Celtics, who were favored in this series but now have blown big leads two games in a row to fall behind 2-0 in the series.
Reports say there was a lot of yelling in the locker room afterward and that starting guard Marcus Smart was heard screaming at teammates, and the then storming out without talking to the media.
Stevens and other players downplayed the blow-up.
"Guys were emotional after a hard game," Stevens said. "Hard loss."
"It really just, a lot of emotions just flying around," Brown said. "Obviously we feel like we could have won, we should have won, but we didn't. So just a lot of emotions flying around. That's it."
"I don't know who said that," Tatum said. "I mean, we're 0-2. I mean, we're frustrated, but this is team sports.
"We're not supposed to be happy we're down 0-2, but nothing out of the ordinary, just talking about the game. It's cool. Got to get ready for the next one."
Langford's status for the rest of the series is uncertain. He played 32 games during the regular season, scoring a total of 79 points.
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