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Celtics' James Young possibly out several weeks with hamstring injury

Boston Celtics wing James Young has a strained hamstring that could keep him out several weeks.
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Boston Celtics wing James Young has a strained hamstring that could keep him out several weeks, head coach Brad Stevens said to MassLive.com.

Young originally injured his hamstring while stretching before Monday's preseason opener against the Philadelphia 76ers, saying he "heard a few pops." He played through the injury at first, scoring 10 points, but it started bothering him more at halftime.

The rookie sat out Wednesday's preseason game against the New York Knicks as a precaution. Young gave possible timelines of "a few weeks" and "a few days" in two separate answers about how long he'll be out, but Stevens said it's more likely Young is "week-to-week" with the injury than "day-to-day."

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“The hamstrings, the mild calf strain that Jeff (Green) has, you’ve just got to be really careful with the muscular stuff,” Stevens said. “Just because those can be really lingering and nagging.”

Young said of his injury: "I wouldn't say it will be a hit. Just a little fallback, a little setback. I'm still going to visually learn like how I am."

Young also missed the entire summer league seasons because of concussion symptoms stemming from a car crash in June before the NBA draft. He was cleared to resume playing in early August.

The former Kentucky one-and-done was selected by the Celtics with the No. 17 pick in this year's draft, joining No. 6 pick Marcus Smart as Boston's first-round selections. Young averaged 14.3 points per game and shot 34.9 percent on three-pointers for the Wildcats in his lone college season.

The Celtics went 25-57 last season in their first year of a rebuild and missed the playoffs for the first time since 2006-07.

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Boston, 2-0 in the preseason, plays the Toronto Raptors on Friday and opens the regular season Oct. 29 against the Brooklyn Nets.

Ben Estes