In the final minutes of Boston’s 107-100 win over the Los Angeles Lakers, the Celtics managed to take every blow the Lakers tossed their way.
But there was one blow – the one Lakers big man Julius Randle landed to the face of Evan Turner – that may result in Boston being without one of their most versatile players as they hit the home stretch of the regular season.
With less than 20 seconds to play, Kobe Bryant launched a corner 3-pointer with Jae Crowder defending. Turner was running down court and went up to try and grab the rebound, but was hit in the face by Randle battling for the missed shot.
After holding his face for a couple seconds, Turner rose to his feet and immediately headed towards the team’s locker room. That’s when Amir Johnson motioned for the Celtics’ medical staff who were already on their way to attend to Turner.
“He’s got bleeding in his eye,” Celtics coach Brad Stevens told reporters after the win. “We don’t know the extent of the injury but clearly he got some eye poke and hopefully not too much trauma. We’ll find out as we stick around here.”
Turner’s injury was one of the few downers in Sunday’s win which clinched a playoff berth for Boston.
He had a solid night filling in for Avery Bradley who was not with the team for personal reasons. Turner had 17 points on 7-for-12 shooting to go with four rebounds and four assists.