LaFrentz takes steps with knee

["Stephen Beauregard" <sb@xxxxxxxxxxxx>]

LaFrentz takes steps with knee
By Steve Bulpett/Celtics Notebook
Wednesday, November 26, 2003

There is good news on the Raef LaFrentz front, and if the Celtics get even
more of the same tomorrow they could have him playing again by Friday. The
6-foot-11 center-forward is eligible to come off the injured list after
missing the five-game minimum, but it was expected his right knee tendinitis
(hindered further by an infection) would keep him out until next week.

     ``Raef did some light four-on-four and five-on-zero stuff (in practice
yesterday),'' Jim O'Brien said. ``He did not drill with us. The latest is that
if it goes according to plan he will practice Thanksgiving Day and try to be
ready to go on Friday night against Milwaukee. That was not the case
yesterday, but he responded well overnight to medication. So he seems to be
making the proper strides. He responded better than the doctors thought was
going to happen.''

     The combination of the tendinitis and the infection hurt LaFrentz.

     ``He has severe tendinitis in his knee, and I think the infection that he
had really made him extremely weak,'' O'Brien said. ``He lost a lot of weight.
If you have an infection in one area of your body, it certainly impacts on
your ability to heal another area of your body. He's building his weight back
up, but I think at one point he had lost 12 pounds. And the medication he was
taking for the infection really prohibited the medication that he was taking
for his tendinitis to work properly. So it exacerbated it.''

     Magic can be scary

     O'Brien doesn't want to consider the dangers in meeting an Orlando team
that has lost 13 straight games.

     ``It can't matter,'' he said before heading off for Florida yesterday.
``They're in dire need of a win; we're in dire need of a win. We understand
that they've been very, very close. They had a tough road trip recently where
they could have won a bunch of those games. The same thing could be said about
the Celtics. There's no team that has put us away early and then it's one of
those 10- or 15-point games that you have no chance in. We have competed and
been disappointed like the Magic have in our production in finishing games.''
. . .

     The Celtics focused a good deal on their defense yesterday. It is an area
that's clearly disturbing the coach, who expected a transition period on
offense after the loss of Antoine Walker [news].

     ``When we adhere to our schemes, I don't think teams are shooting over 30
percent against us,'' O'Brien said. ``I'm not sure of a lot, but I am sure of
one thing: We can be one of the better defensive teams in the league. Right
now, in my estimation, we're mediocre at best defensively.''b
Thanks,

Steve
sb@xxxxxxxxxxxx