Celtics' Jae Crowder turned into a keeper

The Celtics announced on Monday that Jae Crowder's left knee injury isn't very serious. Now, let's see if the Celtics' interest in re-signing the third-year forward is.

Crowder's stock soared in the postseason more than any other Celtic, and he could cash in this summer as long as his knee injury isn't worse than the Celtics have reported.

The Celtics said Crowder suffered a sprained ACL and bone bruise, but he isn't expected to require surgery. Celtics president of basketball operations Danny Ainge told the Boston Herald that Crowder will undergo therapy for a couple of weeks and was lucky his injury wasn't more severe.

Crowder injured his knee when he was battling Cleveland's J.R. Smith under the boards early in the second half of Game 4 Sunday at the Garden when the Cavs completed a four-game sweep. Smith swung his arm back and hit Crowder in the face. When Crowder fell to the floor, his left leg twisted under him awkwardly, and he had to be helped to the locker room. Crowder did not return. Smith was assessed a flagrant 2 foul and ejected. Smith was suspended by the NBA Monday for two games of the Eastern Conference semifinals.

In the first half, former Celtic Kendrick Perkins picked up a flagrant 1 foul for putting both hands against Crowder's neck and shoving him to the floor.

That foul has been upgraded to a flagrant 2 foul, and Perkins has been fined $15,000.

Crowder told the Boston Globe that he considered the fouls to be "cheap shots." The Cavs were just as upset about Kelly Olynyk locking his arm around Kevin Love's arm and causing Love to dislocate his shoulder. Love, who will be sidelined for the conference semifinals, called Olynyk "bush-league" and insisted Olynyk intentionally tried to hurt him, a charge that Olynyk denied.

Olynyk was suspended for a game Monday for his actions.

Crowder averaged 10.8 points and 5 rebounds in the four-game series, but could have averaged even more if he hadn't been injured for most of the second half of Game 4. Crowder shot 51.7 percent and did a decent job of making LeBron James work for his points.

"I've always had self-confidence," Crowder said prior to Game 4, "and I think it comes from the work you put in when no one's around. With that being said, I feel like I've done what I need to do to prepare myself for a stage of this magnitude. So I'm not pleased with the total effort that myself and the team have given out thus far, but it's definitely somewhere you can start building from going forward."

The only change that Celtics coach Brad Stevens made to his starting lineup in the playoff series was inserting Crowder in place of rookie Marcus Smart in Game 4.

Crowder may have been a throw-in in the deal that sent Rajon Rondo and Dwight Powell to the Mavericks on Dec. 18, but he's the only ex-Mav still with the Celtics. The Celtics later dealt Jameer Nelson and Brandon Wright, whom they also acquired from Dallas.

Crowder played sparingly in Dallas this season, averaging only 3.6 points and 1.2 rebounds in 10.6 minutes, but he blossomed in Boston, averaging 9.5 points and 4.6 rebounds in 24.2 minutes in 57 games. The 6-foot-7, 240-pound tweener doesn't handle the ball or shoot well enough (28.2 percent from threeland with Boston) to play small forward, and he lacks the size, if not the heart and aggressiveness, to play power forward.

Ainge has said he'd like to keep Crowder around. The Celtics must offer Crowder a $1.2 million qualifying offer by June 30 or he'll become a restricted free agent. The Mavs are reportedly interesting in trying to bring Crowder back, but once the Celtics sign him to a qualifying offer, they can match any offer. He earned $915,243 this season. He turns 25 on July 6.

"Jae doesn't really speak much," Avery Bradley said, "but he leads by example. Every single day he comes in, he plays hard, and you saw him, he gave it his all, he went out there and fought, he got the crowd into it, and he got us into it. It was unfortunate that he got hurt and had to leave the game, but Jae Crowder is definitely a competitor, and this entire year, he's been helping our team out every single game."

The Cavs drafted Crowder out of Marquette with the 34th pick of the 2012 draft, but sent him the next day to Dallas in a deal for Tyler Zeller, his current Celtics teammate.

Contact Bill Doyle at william.doyle@telegram.com. Follow him on Twitter @BillDoyle15.