C.J. Miles practiced with the team on both Tuesday and Wednesday.
C.J. Miles wore a big smile after practice on Wednesday, and for good reason.
“Yeah, I’m back,” he said with his usual grin.
Only this wasn’t just a smile from a player that was able to complete consecutive practices for the first time in several weeks. It was a shooter cheesing because he was finally back in his element, knocking down shot after shot once practice concluded.
He was in no hurry to call it quits on this day; he was one of the last players off the practice floor; Miles had been sidelined long enough in his mind.
“I’m good,” he said of how he felt afterwards. “Just a couple days to be able to get some rhythm, get my legs under me.
“I’ve been doing as much as I can but it doesn’t substitute playing 5-on-5 so getting hit, having to cut, and having stuff be unpredictable has been the biggest help for me the last two days.”
Miles suffered a left calf strain back on Feb. 21 at Orlando. The Pacers are 4-5 in those games and .500 (7-7) this season without him. It’s the same injury that cost Miles time during training camp and preseason in his first year with the team.
C.J. Miles expects to return Saturday in Dallas, his hometown.
Late last week, Miles re-joined the team for the final game of a four-game roadie in Washington D.C.
“That was the first day I was on my own power, like all my weight running on the floor, cutting really hard,” Miles explained.
“There was a chance, if I got going well enough, that I could play. I had had a pretty good workout the two days before so they wanted to see if they got me going really fast, really cutting, and really doing things if I could get in that game.
While he did go through pre-game warmups, he wasn’t expecting to play. And he did not. Mostly, he missed the guys and was there in case of an emergency.
“And then the Chase [Budinger] thing was happening, so just in case something went wrong,” he continued. “But we weren’t going to push it to the point where we felt like I could re-injure or make it worse.”
Away from the team for six days, Miles stayed back in Indianapolis and worked out daily with Mike DiBenedetto, an assistant video coordinator, along with interns Lewis and Patrick. It allowed him to work out when and for as long as he wanted, plus he had access to the pool and an anti-gravity treadmill.
That’s what he means when he says he wasn’t running on his own power until last Saturday.
“Progressing well,” coach Frank Vogel said of Miles. “He went through the full practice and looked good.”
For a shooter like Miles, getting healthy and in rhythm is especially important. One minor thing can bother him and in turn, his shot may be a little off. We saw that some last year as C.J. played with several nagging injuries throughout the course of the season.
[Solomon Hill treats fans to a movie night]
Following the Pacers’ win over San Antonio on Monday, their best home victory of the season, the team has four days between games.
“For me it was a blessing to be able to have the practice days and to be able to have the time between to get ready knowing that we could have some decent intensity practices to let me be able to get some run,” Miles said.
Again, rhythm is everything. he’s shooting 39.8 percent for the season, including 34.7 percent from distance.
When Miles does return to the court, likely Saturday in his hometown (Dallas), he’ll be sporting a new look. A headband is happening.
“For now, yeah,” he said. “We’re going to see how long it lasts. It’s staying for now.”
The Pacers haven’t had a player wear a headband for several years. (Paul George sometimes will for practice, but not in a game.) A few players did last year in honor of Chris Copeland, their loyal teammate who was stabbed in New York. Newcomer Ty Lawson goes with the headband look, too.
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Miles’ reasoning, meanwhile, is rather simple. “One is my hair is longer than it usually is and so I’m sweating right into my eyes. Two is I just got bored being at home six days.”
Stuckey’s Minute Restriction Raised
Rodney Stuckey’s minute restriction has been bumped up to “around 22 minutes,” per coach Vogel. The team wants to be cautious and patient in his return to regular minutes as the regular season winds down.
Stuckey, the Pacers’ sixth man, suited back up for game action on Feb. 26 after being sidelined for 19 consecutive games due to a right foot sprain and bone bruise. He told VigilantSports.com that if not for the team’s medical staff holding him out, playing on it would have risked breaking the foot just as Marc Gasol and T.J. Warren had.
Initially he was held around 15 minutes; however, he played no more than 19 minutes and no less than 18 minutes in six of the seven games since his return.