BOSTON — Celtics swingman Marquis Daniels suffered a bruised spinal cord yesterday and will be sidelined for quite awhile.
“A month, two months,” Danny Ainge, Celtics president of basketball operations, guessed. “It’ll be a month anyway.”
Early in the second quarter of a 91-80 victory over Orlando at the Garden, Daniels drove baseline and hit his head against the shoulder of Magic guard Gilbert Arenas. Daniels immediately fell face-first on the court and lay motionless.
After a 4-1/2-minute delay, Daniels gave a thumbs-up sign as he was carried off on a stretcher. Dr. Brian McKeon, the Celtics’ team doctor, said Daniels bruised his spinal cord, but had not suffered a concussion.
Ainge visited Daniels at New England Baptist Hospital at halftime and said Daniels could move his arms and legs. Daniels even asked for an update of the score.
“He had talked with his wife and with his mother,” Ainge said. “He was fine.”
McKeon said Daniels’ neck injury was similar to but a little worse than the concussion he suffered in Game 5 of the Eastern Conference finals last May against Orlando. Daniels will undergo CT scans and an MRI today.
Daniels’ history of spinal cord trouble extends further back than last year.
“He’s had that since he was at birth,” Rajon Rondo said.
The sight of Daniels on the floor shocked his teammates.
“Those moments really don’t happen in basketball,” Rondo said. “Once maybe every two or three years. I think T.J. Ford (with Milwaukee seven years ago) had something similar, but that’s not common really in basketball.”
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