Delonte West to Undergo Surgery on Tuesday While Jermaine O’Neal’s Return Date Still Unknown

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Nov 29, 2010

WALTHAM, Mass. — In the days immediately following Wednesday night, when Celtics guard Delonte West went down with a broken wrist, the team had next to nothing in the way of an update on his health status. That changed Monday, when Doc Rivers addressed the media at practice and put West's future in more definite terms.

"Surgery [on Tuesday]," the coach said. "Then we'll know more after that."

So while the Celtics travel to Cleveland and take on the Cavaliers on Tuesday night at Quicken Loans Arena, West will go under the knife. Meanwhile, the C's will try to make ends meet without him.

Rajon Rondo, Ray Allen and Nate Robinson are all likely to see more minutes as the three main guards in Rivers' rotation. The door has also opened for a fourth guard, likely either Von Wafer or Avery Bradley, to ease his way into the rotation.

"One of the two will help us," Rivers said. "We may need Von more than Avery in some ways, because we need him for the [shooting guard] spot. But Avery can help us, too. So we'll see. We'll work it out."

As for the other major injury concern, Rivers said there was nothing new to report on center Jermaine O'Neal, who's been missing in action with a knee injury.

"He's in the gym now," the coach said. "He's working out. He's doing all the stuff he should do. But no update — I haven't even checked, honestly. He's not playing this week, I can tell you that."

O'Neal was originally slated to miss two to three weeks — that was the timetable Rivers laid out exactly two weeks ago, when the C's convened for practice on Nov. 15. Do the math — he should be returning at some point this week. But the best-laid plans of veteran basketball teams often go awry.

"When you come into the year with one plan, you've got to change the plan sometimes," Rivers said. "And that's something we're doing right now as a staff. The 10-man unit is not going to work right now. With the injuries, it's unrealistic. Paul [Pierce], Ray, Kevin [Garnett] or Rondo, one of those four, has to be in with that bench. It's tough to put all five bench guys on the floor. Not having D-West out on the floor, or not having Jermaine or [Shaquille O'Neal] on the floor, it puts them in a tough place."

The Celtics have shown an ability this season to roll with the punches. Last year, they used injuries as an excuse when their performance went south; they don't want that to happen again.

"You've got to go with what you've got," said Rondo. "It's as simple as that. There's probably no one practicing with 15 guys on their roster right now in this league. There's no excuses. We know what we've got. We've still got a got a core group of guys that are still healthy right now, so we still feel like we can win every game."

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