It was late in the second quarter of Boston’s final contest with the Philadelphia 76ers that Baylor Scheierman lost the ball.
Scheierman, announced the day prior that he’d be playing through a fractured left thumb, had defenders on his back and in his face, before Tyrese Maxey swooped in from an off-ball position to swipe the ball and sprint to an open basket. But Scheierman didn’t let the play die, instead racing behind Maxey and using his left hand to push the ball out of bounds. In the moment,
you’d probably expect signs of pain from the ailing Scheierman, but his face showed nothing but frustration for the turnover.
Not a wince, not a sign of discomfort, but a clap of frustration, and nothing more.
Seven days later against Cleveland, now with an established “thumbs up” celebration to show off the splint protecting it, he had his own clear lane to the basket, leaking out off a missed Cavaliers shot and slamming a two-handed dunk, briefly hanging on the rim in the process. This time, there was a reaction.
A smile.
It was on Derrick White’s White Noise podcast that we heard a secondary perspective on Scheierman’s injury, and just how painful it’s been for the second-year wing.
“He’s struggling to put his socks on, but he’s going out there and doing a lot of good things for us,” White said.
Scheierman, now playing on a sprained ankle sustained late in the loss to the OKC Thunder on Thursday night, is somehow persisting through both injuries while being a positive contributor in the process.
In the two weeks since his fractured thumb was announced, Scheierman has played in all eight games, shot 46% from the field, 37% from three, and contributed 2.5 assists with 6 rebounds. He is one of five Celtics to take more than 40 3-pointers in that span, and his 37% shooting is the highest among them.
All the more impressive? Every made basket has come from his dominant left hand, including an array of jumpers, floaters, and yes, even a sweeping left hook.
Could anyone have possibly anticipated such efficiency with an injury to a shooting hand? It almost defies belief. When it comes to players battling through injury, the expectation is a dip in overall quality. You applaud the fight and the effort, but you see someone not completely up to their usual standards. When Malcolm Brogdon played multiple Eastern Conference Final games with a partially torn tendon in his shooting elbow, you could see the discomfort he had from your home screen. It was a great shooter greatly affected by a serious injury.
But Baylor has, curiously, been up to his own standards so far, with his eight-game efficiency pretty closely matching his 45/38 splits on the season.
Against the Wizards on Saturday, now carrying the weight of pain on two limbs, Scheierman had a true off-night shooting, making just one of his eight shot attempts. It was the kind of shooting you’d probably expect from that first night with the finger wrapped up, not the eighth.
And yet, ever the gadget player, Scheierman still found ways to impact the game, grabbing nine rebounds, four of which came on the offensive glass, along with a pair of crafty assists.
This second quarter hustle play was indicative of the team’s rebounding stronghold over the Wizards, with Scheierman’s corner crash cutting between four paint-surrounding Wizards who watched as he saved the possession that’d later lead to a Luka Garza putback.
Even with the added tension of an ankle injury, there has been no reason to indicate Scheierman missing time with the Boston schedule continuing its every other day pattern for the next week.
“We’re just kind of evaluating it as it goes, but I feel good enough to be out there, and that’s how it’s going to be,” Scheierman told reporters after the initial report of his thumb injury. “I’m not going to sit out.”
Maybe he’s having a hard time putting a sock on, but the impact he’s made on the floor can often look effortless.
NBA basketball in March can be a strange time. Teams, like the Wizards, will dig their heels in to improve their lottery odds, players that don’t often fill up the statsheet will do just that, and playoff-bound teams will actively find new ways of saying “Load Management” on an injury report to keep their best players rested as playoff seeding begins to take its final shape.
And then there’s Baylor Scheierman, finger broken and ankle bothered, crashing the glass, confidently pulling up from 25 feet, and leaving it on the court as he continues to prove why he belongs in the rotation for the foreseeable future.
