League sources confirm that Marcus Smart’s name has come up in a number of trade discussions ahead of Thursday’s deadline, and as he stood in the Celtic sdressing room yesterday, his right hand protected by both black and white tape, it was hard not to connect the circumstantial stitches.

For the second straight Jan. 24, Smart punched an inanimate object — last year it was a locker room wall in Washington, this year a picture frame in a Beverly Hills hotel bathroom — and there is room to wonder how long Celtics management wants to cast its lot with the tough and excitable guard.

One league source insists the Celts had discussions with Denver about Smart for Emmanuel Mudiay and a draft pick, but another denied it. The C’s are clearly looking at their options with Smart, in that he will be a restricted free agent this summer if they give him the $6,053,719 qualifying offer, and they may not want to worry about what someone else will offer.

In any case, Smart doesn’t believe any of the talks stem from his temper.

“I don’t,” he said. “I mean, I’ve been in trade rumors since I’ve been in the league. It happens. It’s business. Nothing’s written in stone until it happens, so we’re just going to see how it goes. But I’m not worried about it. I don’t think that the trade rumors are because of my hand or anything like that.”

Speaking of rumors, Smart denied reports that this latest injury came when he grew angry at pictures posted on social media by a female acquaintance.

“Frustration with myself, everything that was going on,” he said. “You know, it got the best of me, and when you get frustrated and you get kind of angry, you don’t really think straight and this happens — stuff like this happens. It’s just something you’ve got to learn from and move on. The hand’s healing very well. I’ll be back soon, and I’m just blessed that nothing more serious happened to it.”

Asked further about the reports, Smart said, “No. Nothing that happened off the court had nothing to do with it, which a lot of people probably think it was, but, you know, it really wasn’t. And like I said, it’s something I’ve got to learn from. We move on. People in this world, unfortunately, this happens to more than just one person. Everybody’s been in this situation before where you’ve had a relapse where you’ve just, in a blink of an eye, things change, you were upset and you pay for it. So, like I said, I’ve got to learn from it and move on.”

The injury occurred the day after Smart had missed a last-second shot in a 108-107 loss to the Lakers and was questioned about not going to the hoop or giving the ball up to a higher percentage shooter.

“At that moment, we’d lost a few games, I think four in a row to teams we feel we should have beat,” he said before the Celtics met Portland. “Being a competitor, missing the last shot, you kind of get upset with yourself. You find ways and you kind of rethink about that night and that last shot, what you could have done differently, and you kind of replay everything in your head.

“As a competitor, you want to make every shot, especially when the game is on the line. And we fell short, so it’s just a lot of frustration about my play, as well as just how the team was going.”

The original prognosis had Smart missing as much as two weeks, but it appears that timeline has lengthened.

“I think I’ll be able to play again sometime after All-Star, after the All-Star break,” he said of the Feb. 18 game, after which the Celts don’t play until the 23rd in Detroit. “We’ve just got to give it time for the hand, the skin really. The stitches are out. Everything healed up fine. I’ve just got a few turf-burns type of road rash on the top of my hand, so we’re just trying to let that skin heal before we get back doing anything. We don’t want to re-open it and set us two steps back.”

Smart reiterated that he, “punched a picture frame — literally. When I punched it, instantly I looked at my hand and I was like, I couldn’t believe it. It was a pretty deep cut, laceration. I had a couple of stitches. (Twenty, actually.) Everything happened so fast, so it was kind of like, you know, breathtaking at the moment.

“Like I said, we’ve all been frustrated. We all get upset. I know I’m not the only one who’s punched something or done something where you’ve caused injury to yourself or things like that of that nature. So like I said, I’m just blessed that everything works, and it’s just something that’s going to take time to heal and I’ll be back.”

Any blessing has to do with the fact that there was no nerve damage or deeper problem that could hinder his career.

“I was worried,” Smart said. “I was definitely worried with the whole punching of the picture frame, you know, the glass. I was really worried, but, like I said, I was talking to the doctors; it’s a blessing. They said it missed everything and it could have messed my hand up pretty bad. So I am blessed that nothing serious happened that mattered. I’ve still got my hand. I’ve still got my feeling and the use of my hand. It could have been serious.”

For the Celtics, the injury and the judgment behind the punch are serious.