Even Leon Powe appears to be surprised by his recovery from a right knee bruise. As coach Doc Rivers noted before last night’s game against Miami, the team is now assured of having Powe for the playoffs.

Though the Celtics forward remains a longshot to return to action before the playoffs, his increased activity during yesterday morning’s shootaround was considered encouraging for all involved.

“It’s getting better day by day,” he said. “I did a workout (Thursday), and they had me jumping, dunking and running. It was sore for about an hour and I asked them about that. They said it should go away, and then today I did a workout running down the court. I stood still, moved a little bit and it felt fine.”

There’s only one problem.

“It doesn’t feel 100 percent because I’m playing with the brace on, and I don’t like the brace,” he said. “They said any activity I’ll be wearing the brace just to make sure.”

Rivers poses an obstacle of another kind - one of caution.

“I didn’t increase (yesterday’s activity), he just went through the entire shootaround,” Rivers said. “He looked good, actually, and that was a pleasant surprise. The one bright spot of the day was that he looked good, and it looks like he’ll be ready for the playoffs. That was terrific news for all of us. It was just a shootaround, but that was good to see.”